Control
by BregoArodShadowfax
Summary: In which Sanji and Ace are models for a BDSM site and Law's the new guy doing his first shoot (Dom!Ace, sub!Sanji-and-Law, Ace/Law/Sanji in all combinations)
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Control  
 **Author:** kikokus (AoiTsukikage)  
 **Rating:** NC-17  
 **Characters/Pairing:** Law/Sanji, Ace/Sanji, Ace/Law, Ace/Law/Sanji  
 **Chapter:** 1/?  
 **Word Count:** 4518  
 **Summary:** In which Sanji and Ace are models for a BDSM site and Law's the new guy doing his first shoot (Dom!Ace, sub!Sanji-and-Law)

 **Chapter One**

"So you've never worked with this guy?"

"Nobody has," Ace shook his head, hands stuffed casually in his pockets as they strolled down the hall. "From what I've heard, it sounds like this is his first time doing anything like this."

"Huh," Sanji pursed his lips, wondering why somebody would pick _this_ as their first foray into porn. Normally he liked to have a bit of information on who he was working with, but if the guy was as new as Ace said, that wasn't really possible. "Guess we'll have to start slow."

"I've got some ideas, don't worry," Ace flashed his signature thousand-watt grin at him and Sanji figured that if any of the doms here could make somebody feel comfortable, it was probably Ace.

Okay, he might be a _little_ biased since he and Ace didn't exactly confine their interactions to work, but he trusted Ace more than any of the other guys there. They weren't a couple or anything, but since he and Ace ran in the same circle of friends anyway it was easy to meet up…and, well, Sanji had realized soon enough that outside of work Ace wasn't nearly so set on being in control all the time.

In fact, Ace was kind of a giant dork, and sometimes it was hard for Sanji to reconcile the almost-cocky persona he had at work with his normal easygoing nature.

"Do you know anything about him?" Sanji stopped in the hall before they entered the room they'd be working in and Ace flipped through a stapled packet of papers he was carrying.

"He's 26, 6'3"…his hard limits are in line with yours which is probably why they put you together," Ace noted, and Sanji could see the logic in that. "I've heard he's gorgeous," he added, waggling his eyebrows, and Sanji snorted.

"Most of the people here are, you realize, or else we probably wouldn't have gotten these jobs," he snagged the file and looked it over, humming appreciatively as he got to the information about the mystery man's measurements. " _Nice."_

"Yeah, knew you'd like that," Ace took the papers back and leaned back against the doorframe. "So? Ready to get started?"

"After seeing that?" Sanji moved closer so that he could trap Ace against the door and leaned in to kiss him. "Yeah. Let's do this."

"Cool," Ace nudged his nose against Sanji's in a playfully affectionate gesture before reaching behind him for the doorknob and letting the door swing open.

Sanji strode in, knowing the layout of the room by heart after being here so many times. However, he could instantly tell that the guy seated in a chair off to the side was out of his element.

His body was too tense, for one thing, and he jumped when the door slammed behind Ace, but one glance at him let Sanji know Ace hadn't been lying about his looks.

He _was_ gorgeous, all long limbs and bronze skin, and when he glanced toward them Sanji can see his eyes flash gold in the low light of the room.

"You're Law?" Ace broke the silence first, walking toward the other man and holding out his hand. The man nodded, standing up to return the handshake and then going back to his rather closed-off position. "Great! I'm Ace, I'll be your dom for the shoot," he added, barely getting a shrug in return. "This is Sanji. I suggest you get to know him because you're going to be getting _very_ close in a few minutes," he smirked and Sanji nudged him with his elbow.

Law's eyes flicked up and down his body before he shrugged again, which hardly gave Sanji any insight into how he was feeling about the entire situation.

In fact, he was mostly acting as if he didn't want to be there, but obviously that wasn't the case since he would have had to have gone through an extensive application process just to get to this point.

"Um. Right," Ace flailed his hands a little and Sanji could tell he was put-off by the man's icy attitude as well. Normally Ace could get anybody to open up to him, no matter how apprehensive they were, but this guy wasn't responding at all. "So, just…pull your chair out to the middle of the room and we'll get the pre-shoot interview started. Okay?"

The man didn't reply, but he did as he was instructed, and Sanji went to get his own chair and sat down beside Law.

He had a feeling this was going to be a challenge, and right now, he wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

000

The pre-shoot interview was…interesting. Law answered the questions readily enough, but when it came to the standard 'what's your previous experience with bondage?' and 'what aspects of it appeal to you?' queries he didn't offer much more than shrugs and a rather half-hearted reasoning of 'I wanted to try something new.'

Because, to Sanji, 'trying something new' was maybe asking somebody to tie your hands to the headboard one night, not full-out device bondage with a complete stranger.

Law nodded absently while Ace went over the safe-words and Sanji could tell that the man's utter lack of any sort of emotion was affecting Ace's normal bubbly personality as well.

They finished with Ace telling them to take a few minutes while he set things up, and Sanji snuck after him instead of staying there with Law.

"So. I guess it's a good thing he's fucking hot, because his personality isn't going to win him any awards," Sanji leaned back and watched Ace set out a few coils of rope, his eyes lighting up at some of the other things placed on the table beside them.

"Tell me about it," Ace sighed, leaning back against the table. "I've never seen anybody so guarded here. I mean, there's only so stoic you can be when the end result is getting tied up and coming on camera," he grinned as Sanji settled himself beside him. "I'm gonna start with him, though…see how he handles things at first, and then bring you in a little later. Okay?"

"Sure," Sanji was actually happy about that, since it meant he got to spend at least a bit of time _just_ with Ace and he was never going to complain in that situation. "C'mere," he hooked an arm around Ace's neck and pulled him in for another kiss, trying to reassure the older man that they could do this.

He wasn't sure how just yet, but between the two of them, they'd get Law to open up and enjoy himself.

Somehow.

000

Law didn't say a word to him from the moment he returned until the time Ace called for him, leaving Sanji to wonder again how they were going to put on any sort of show that the site members would _want_ to watch. Law was beautiful, yeah, but that by itself wasn't going to keep anybody's attention.

He took a few sips from a bottle of water, slumping back in the chair and biding his time until the door leading to another set opened and Ace snuck back in. He was dressed differently now, wearing a tight sleeveless shirt that showed off his arm muscles and slim black jeans that Sanji knew could be pulled down enough for easy access to his dick.

"So? How goes it?" Sanji stood up and stretched, bending back in a move that most people wouldn't be flexible enough to pull off before flipping back to his feet again.

"Show-off," Ace grinned. "He's stubborn…it's like he's trying hard _not_ to react, but I could work with it. He's fucking sexy, Sanji, like…holy _shit,"_ Ace laughed, sounding adorably nervous, and Sanji felt his cock twitch because if Ace was _that_ affected Law's body really had to be something special.

"No sense in wasting time here then, is there?" Sanji headed for the door as Ace snickered.

"Sure, _now_ you're eager," he stopped with a hand on the doorknob. "Got your character?"

"Yep," Sanji reached down and picked up a backpack that he slung over his shoulder, jamming a baseball cap over his hair and trying to tamp down his excitement.

The scene they were doing wasn't original by any means, but it was an easy way to get Law into the swing of things. And hey, it wasn't as if the people that watched these shoots cared about the storylines as much as the content, so the more cliché, the better.

"Give me thirty seconds and then come in," Ace winked and disappeared behind the door, leaving Sanji to count out the required time before he slammed the door open.

Showtime.

000

"Where is he?!"

"You have the money?" Ace's voice was low and dangerous, so different from the man Sanji had been talking to less than a minute earlier.

"I have the fucking money, now _where is he?!"_ Sanji threw the backpack down on the table, hoping he sounded panicked enough. "You've got what you wanted, now let him go!"

"Patience," Ace never broke eye contact as he slid the backpack over to him, only looking down to open it and start counting out the contents. "I have to be sure you're not trying to short me."

"Look, it's all there," Sanji injected a note of desperation into his tone. "Please, I need to know he's safe."

"He's safe," Ace waved off his words, still counting. "You'll get your friend back soon enough."

"Fucking sicko," Sanji spat, baring his teeth. "If you've hurt him, I'll…"

"You're not in any position to make threats right now," Ace snapped, zipping the backpack up and tossing it off to the side. "Well. It seems like everything's in order."

"It is," Sanji swallowed heavily. "So where is he?"

"Don't worry," Ace smirked and moved behind him. Sanji forced himself to keep looking forward, since his natural inclination was to follow the other man's movements but he was playing somebody much more naïve and _not_ trained in martial arts. "You'll see him soon enough."

"What's that supposed to…" Sanji gasped when an arm clamped around his waist, reaching back to push it off and letting Ace grab his wrists in his free hand. "Let me go!" he struggled a little, just enough to make it believable, as Ace chuckled darkly in his ear.

"Oh, no. Pretty thing like you? We're going to have some fun," he spun Sanji around and marched him to a waiting dining room chair, pushing him to sit. "I'd suggest you stay here and behave if you want to see your friend alive again," he whispered, and Sanji gasped, trying to speed his breathing up.

"Wh-what did you do to him?" he asked fearfully, resisting a little when Ace lay his arm on the arm of chair and tied a length of rope around it and his wrist so he couldn't get away. He did the same with the other arm before shoving Sanji back so he was sitting upright.

"Nothing compared to what I'm about to do to you," Ace promised, tickling his fingers almost playfully under Sanji's chin. He bent down and caught Sanji's ankles, lashing them to the legs of the chair and effectively immobilizing him.

Sanji closed his eyes, outwardly panicked but inwardly anxious for a much different reason. The first teasing brush of soft rope against his skin was enough to excite him, his body thrumming with arousal.

"Where is he?" he said again, weakly, his breath cutting off in a gasp when Ace knocked the baseball cap from his head and caught his hair in a tight grip.

"I'm getting tired of that question," Ace pulled something out of his pocket, moving it so that Sanji could see it was an O-ring gag.

"No! No, please, I…" Sanji tried to move his head back but Ace grabbed his chin and forced the gag into his mouth, fastening it tightly behind his head.

"Much better," Ace patted his cheek, fingers tightening in the fabric of the old T-shirt Sanji was wearing and then pulling so it ripped right down the middle.

Sanji moaned around the gag, a thin trail of saliva already streaking its way off of his chin to drip against his bare chest.

"Look at you," Ace murmured, and Sanji knew that was as much out of character as it was in. "Sit tight," he brought his palm down hard against Sanji's chest, the resounding 'smack' echoing around the room as Sanji whined, and then he was gone.

Sanji slumped back against the chair, letting his mind drift until Ace came back. He was alone, which surprised Sanji a little since he'd thought they'd get started with him and Law together, but he was hardly going to complain about getting to spend more time with Ace by himself.

"These are in the way," Ace grabbed the elastic waist of the gym shorts he was wearing (and hah, Sanji would _never_ wear anything like that in real life, but since most of what he wore here ended up ruined, it didn't pay to ever bring his good clothes). "Let's see what we're working with here," he yanked the shorts down as far as they could go with Sanji's legs tied, his hand immediately seeking out the bulge in Sanji's underwear and cupping it.

Sanji gurgled something around the gag, hoping it sounded enough like a protest and not a plea for Ace to keep touching him.

"I'm the 'sicko', huh?" Ace grinned, pulling the thin material of his briefs tight against the head of his cock. "You're already wet. You fucking getting off on this?" he murmured and Sanji's eyes rolled back when Ace squeezed a little harder. He tried to look down, seeing that there was indeed a visible wet spot on the fabric and feeling a little embarrassed about how needy he was being. "Hm. Let's see what else that mouth of yours can do besides whine."

Sanji shook his head rapidly, trying to move back when Ace stood up and shoved his pants down just low enough for his cock to spring free. "Suck. And make it good. Maybe then I'll let you see your friend," Ace sneered, but his fingers in Sanji's hair were gentle at first before he yanked the blond's head forward.

Sanji couldn't do much more than obey with his mouth forced open, bobbing his head and sucking obediently under the excuse that he _really_ wanted to see Law and not because he actually enjoyed it.

"Mm, yeah," Ace bucked his hips forward and Sanji took it as best he could, though he still ended up gasping and with drool running down his chin when the older man suddenly pulled away. "Good boy," Ace reached to undo the gag and Sanji worked his jaw once it was out, forcing himself to shiver.

"Please…please, I did what you asked me to, please…"

"I suppose you've earned this," Ace clicked his tongue, tucking himself back into his pants. "Sit tight," he leaned down to grip Sanji's cock again before leaving. Sanji could hear chains clinking in the adjoining room and when the door opened again he had to swallow to wet his suddenly-dry mouth.

Holy shit. Ace hadn't been kidding about Law's body, and it was making his cock even harder. He wasn't hugely muscular, which Sanji could tell even fully-dressed, but his entire body was toned and well-defined…though even more noticeable than that were the tattoos covering his arms and chest.

They're…hearts, for the most part, and Sanji had no idea why his first thought was that they somehow suited Law when he effectively knew nothing about the other man.

"You've got a visitor," Ace murmured, shoving Law to his knees, and Sanji could see there was a heavy collar around the other man's neck that was attached to a chain Ace was holding.

Law's eyes flicked up to him and Sanji can see his face visibly pale which, if nothing else, meant that he at least was willing to _act_ the part.

"No," he gasped and Sanji struggled a bit against his bindings, like he was trying to get out of the chair and run over. "You _idiot!_ Why did you come here?" Law snarled, his teeth bared, and Sanji felt a surge of heat in his belly because if Law wanted to play it that way he was more than happy to.

"Because he set a ransom on you!" he exclaimed. "What? Were we just supposed to leave you…"

" _Yes,"_ Law's chest was heaving as he sat up higher on his knees. "It was never about the money! And now…"

"And now I've got two of you to play with," Ace grinned, leaning down to caress Law's cheek almost tenderly. "Get over there," he shoved Law off-balance and the man growled at him, starting to get to his feet before Ace tightened his grip on the chain. "Crawl."

Law did, but not before glaring daggers at Ace, and Ace didn't let him stop until he was between Sanji's spread legs.

"You two…you're friends, right? I mean, he seemed awfully concerned," Ace clicked his tongue and Law gave a scathing laugh.

"We know each other. They probably sent him to deliver the money so that if something horrible happened nobody would miss him," he snorted, his breath cutting off in a gasp when Ace grabbed a fistful of hair and pulled his head back.

"I didn't ask for your life's story," Ace hissed into his ear. "Both of you are too fucking mouthy. I already made your friend here use his mouth for something other than talking, so it's only fair that you get the same treatment," he shoved Law forward so that his chin was resting on the seat of the chair, and Sanji tried to hold back a groan because the thought of Law's mouth on his dick was making him even hotter.

"Well? Don't make him wait," Ace bent down and yanked Law's arms back, and Sanji heard a 'click' that probably meant Ace had cuffed his hands behind him. "Look at him, he's leaking already. I bet he's always wanted to see you on your knees, humiliate you a little, hmm?" Ace gave Sanji a pointed look and Sanji knew they were both thinking the same thing: as long as the way Law was directing the scene still fit with what they were trying to do, they'd let him lead.

"No," Sanji shook his head when Law looked up at him. "No, You don't have to do this…I never wanted, I just wanted to make sure you were safe…"

"Actually, blondie, he kind of _does_ have to," Ace pulled a switchblade from his pocket, holding the back of the blade to Law's throat. "Unless you want his blood quite literally on your hands."

Law gulped, and the look in his eyes then was more than a little apprehensive.

Sanji knew Ace would never hurt them since knife-play wasn't something either of them had agreed to, but Law probably didn't have quite the same trust in Ace that he did.

"Then kill us," Sanji snarled. "Fuck, if you're just going to use as…as sex slaves, what's the point? You're not going to let us go, so just kill us!"

" _Sanji,"_ Law hissed, and Sanji blinked in surprise because he hadn't even realized Law had bothered to learn his name.

"I didn't say I _wasn't_ going to let you go. Just not yet. But if you insist…"

"No," Law craned his neck forward, gulping when the blade pressed against his skin, and closed his lips over the bulge of Sanji's cock in his underwear.

"Law…" Sanji's eyes fluttered closed without him meaning them to. "Oh, fuck…"

"Good boy," Ace chuckled, pulling the knife away. Law kept sucking, wetting the fabric and moving his lips down the length of Sanji's now completely hard dick.

"Gh," Sanji tightened his fingers around the arms of the chair, trying not to buck his hips because he needed _more._

"That's enough," Ace pulled back on the chain and Law grunted as his head was forced away. "Up. Sit on his lap."

Law scrambled to his feet, a little awkwardly with his arms chained behind him, and hesitated for only a moment before he complied.

Sanji moaned softly since the action caused Law's naked cock to press against his clothed one, and he watched impassively as Ace leaned down and tied Law's legs to the chair's as well, the ropes binding Sanji's ankles even tighter.

"I'll let you two catch up," Ace pulled on the chain again, tying it off around the back of the chair and forcing Law's face close to Sanji's so that they were almost sharing breath.

Ace left them there like that, the door slamming behind him as he went back to the outer room, and Sanji kept the terrified look on his face until he saw the red light on the camera blink off.

"Hey. You okay?" he murmured, and Law's eyes flicked back to him.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" he blinked and Sanji laughed softly.

"The camera's off, you can drop the act," Sanji smiled and Law's body immediately slumped, his nose pressed against Sanji's neck. "Hey," Sanji nuzzled at his hair, glad that Law was opening up a little.

"Sorry. I'll…"

"Stay," Sanji whispered and Law slid forward as much as he could so their bodies were pressed together. "You're okay, though?"

"Overwhelmed," Law admitted. "But yes, I'm okay. I don't like feeling out of my element," he continued, and Sanji breathed a sigh of relief that Law was finally opening up a little. "I did ample research before coming here but being subjected to it…emotionally I wasn't prepared."

"Yeah, it's like that for everybody, I think," Sanji leaned his head against Law's. "But just remember that you're completely safe, okay? Ace is a fucking sweetheart and I think if he ever hurt somebody, even accidentally, he'd feel bad about it for weeks," he pulled back when Law looked up at him, eyes narrowed.

"You and he…are you…"

"No," Sanji laughed, although he couldn't blame Law for reaching that conclusion. "We're friends…I've known his brother since we were kids and yeah, we fool around sometimes, but it's nothing official."

"Mm," Law hummed in acknowledgement and leaned in, nudging his nose against Sanji's. "I do feel safe."

"That's good," Sanji promised, and now that Law was actually _talking_ to him he could see that the other man was so much more than just a pretty face and an impressive dick. "So what's the real reason you're here?"

"Quite honestly, I was curious. I'm…going to medical school, so as you can imagine, finding time to cultivate any sort of serious relationship is nearly impossible," he shrugged. "And trusting anybody with this sort of thing goes against my nature. So knowing that there was an environment where I could be completely monitored and in control of what happened to me was appealing."

"I get that," Sanji nodded, since he'd heard similar things from other people.

Law was so close, his eyes flicking down briefly before he met Sanji's again, and Sanji parted his lips a little. "I apologize if this is forward, but I…"

Law's nervousness was so fucking endearing, especially considering their current position, but Sanji had an idea of what he wanted and he _definitely_ wanted the same thing.

"Look, he's gonna make us kiss at some point, so if you want a head start…"

Law leaned in then, barely pressing his lips to Sanji's and holding his place until Sanji licked at his lips and returned the kiss.

Fuck, he wanted to touch Law so _badly,_ but of course that was impossible so they had to make do with just kissing.

"Well, you boys seem to be getting along," Ace's voice was much too close and Sanji pulled back, clearing his throat.

"What's up?" he asked, humming when Ace tilted his head down to kiss him. "Are you jealous?"

"Uh, yeah," Ace laughed, his eyes raking over Law's body. "I mean, _look_ at this guy."

Law blushed and Sanji snickered, although he couldn't really deny Ace's words. "Um. Thanks," Law glanced sideways and Sanji nuzzled at his nose again.

"So what's the plan?" Sanji decided to change the subject since Law obviously was uncomfortable talking about his looks (which, to be honest, Sanji didn't _quite_ understand because somebody that looked like him had no reason to be unsure about his appearance).

"Ten minute break and then we'll set up the next scene," Ace reached down to untie Sanji's arms first. "So go get some refreshments and then meet me back here," he knelt down to do their legs and Sanji flexed his fingers, settling his hands on Law's hips and rubbing his skin gently.

"Fuck, I've wanted to touch you since we started," he admitted sheepishly and Law turned an even deeper shade of red.

"I'm glad. You're…both of you are very attractive as well," he amended and Sanji didn't even have to look to know Ace was grinning at that.

"Okay," Ace stood up, reaching to unlock Law's cuffs and Sanji felt a tiny thrill in his stomach that Law's hands came to rest on his own hips as soon as they were free. "Lemme get this off and you guys can go chill out in the lounge," he unhooked the chain from Law's collar before undoing the collar itself and slipping it off. "I'll grab you guys some…" he stopped as one of the camera guys wandered over, passing two bathrobes to him, and grinned. "Thanks, man."

Sanji pulled the remnants of the ripped shirt off of his body and slid his shorts off altogether, waiting until Law stood up before he took the robe and slid it on.

"Ace?" Law sounded as if he wasn't sure he could address the man by name but Ace blinked at him.

"Hey, outside of a scene I'm just a guy," Ace leaned heavily on Sanji's shoulder. "So whatever you wanna say or do, it's cool."

"Right. Well, then," Law stepped forward and Sanji realized that he was probably a few inches taller than Ace, but Ace didn't seem intimidated and he grabbed the front of Law's robe, yanking him in for kiss.

Yeah. Sanji knew Ace had been wanting to do that since he'd laid eyes on Law. Law's hands were clenched at his sides until he breathed out and lifted them, one pushing back Ace's shaggy hair from his face and the other set in the small of his back.

"Holy fuck," Ace pulled away and laughed. "Okay. So," he cleared his throat.

"Ten minutes, right?" Sanji decided he'd help the man out since Ace seemed incapable of stringing two thoughts together at the moment.

"Yeah. And then…" he glanced at Sanji, eyes flashing. "Well, you'll see."

Sanji gulped, sensing the promise in his eyes, and felt his cock twitch again.

He couldn't wait.

 **Notes:**

 **1.** So…I'm really nervous to post this fic because of the content, but I've got a few chapters (or scenes) planned for this situation and then I guess we'll see…if you have any interest at all, please do feel free to leave a comment (and thank you to those who encouraged me to write this – especially okama-kenpo for suggesting Ace as the dom)!


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:** Control  
 **Author:** kikokus (AoiTsukikage)  
 **Rating:** NC-17  
 **Characters/Pairing:** Law/Sanji, Ace/Sanji, Ace/Law, Ace/Law/Sanji  
 **Chapter:** 2/?  
 **Word Count:** 3822  
 **Summary:** In which Sanji and Ace are models for a BDSM site and Law's the new guy doing his first shoot (Dom!Ace, sub!Sanji-and-Law)

 **Chapter Two**

Suspension bondage was one of those things he'd long ago decided he would always have a love/hate relationship with.

On the one hand, being restrained in the air was a feeling he couldn't get anywhere else. The lack of mobility was the same as being tied to an object, maybe, but being unable to ground himself to anything inherently put him in a more vulnerable position.

But on the other, humans were still _meant_ to be on the ground, and having nothing holding him up but ropes and his own body weight fighting gravity to keep him there would always be disconcerting.

At least the way he was currently strung up only put him a few feet off of the ground and he was attached to the bar suspending him in…he craned his neck over his shoulder to check…five different places, so he felt secure.

There were ropes passing around his torso in two places, the upper one circling his biceps and the lower wrapped around his navel. His arms were behind him, wrists tied and resting in the small of his back, and a rather elaborate collection of knots connected all of the ropes just above his arms to hold his chest up. Four more ropes, one on each thigh and ankle, were all connected to the suspension bar to complete the set and his knees were bent back so that it looked like somebody had just…picked him up while kneeling on the ground and attached him to the ceiling.

He watched as a couple of the crew set an x-shaped table underneath him and realized that if somebody was lying there he could be lowered so that their cocks would be touching…which was probably the whole purpose of this, and it made him shiver a little in anticipation.

"Anyway, I'm making Sanji do all the hard work so that we can ease you into this…"

"Wow."

Sanji glanced back and grinned at Law, who was staring at him in something resembling amazement. "Hey."

"That's quite the set-up," Law gave him a tiny smile and moved forward, his hand reaching out before he pulled it back in.

"Look," Sanji knew it was probably impossible for him to sound authoritative when he was tied up and hanging over the ground, but he was going to try. "When we're in here? Whatever you want to do, don't stop yourself," he nearly purred when Law nodded and reached to stroke his hair back, his fingers skimming down along Sanji's sides and over his exposed stomach.

"Are you…is that comfortable?" he asked slowly and Sanji tried to shrug before realizing it was kind of impossible in his current position.

"It's fine," he decided, since the only real strain was on his arms and it wasn't unbearable.

"I still want to get started pretty quickly, though, since I don't like leaving people up there for too long," Ace grabbed the collection of ropes leading from his arms and pulled up, taking some of the weight off. "So if you want to get undressed we can get you set up and then…"

"Afternoon, gentlemen!"

Law, who had been in the process of taking his robe off, pulled it over himself hurriedly. There was no point in it, since anybody in the world could see them online in a few days if they wanted to, but his modesty was just another thing about him that Sanji found adorable considering the situation.

"Marco!" Sanji grinned over his shoulder, wiggling his fingers in the best wave he could manage.

"How are things?" Marco stopped beside them, taking the ropes from Ace and hoisting Sanji up as easily as if he weighed nothing.

"Oh, y'know, just… _hanging out,"_ Sanji leveled a knowing glance at Ace, who swallowed heavily as Marco barked a laugh.

Marco was one of the site admins, and while Sanji had never been able to figure out exactly how old he was, he was extremely affable and made sure all of the models were treated exceptionally well. Sanji had never seen him angry, and in fact he looked half-asleep most of the time, but he'd heard that Marco was brutal when it came to firing people who violated any of their policies.

"Always the witty one, aren't you?" Marco set his free hand on his hip. "I like this, Ace. Your rope-work is impeccable."

"Ah. Yeah. Thanks," Ace coughed and glanced away, so Sanji felt safe smirking at his back.

Because Ace, as it turned out, had kind of a giant Thing for Marco and despite Sanji's many attempts to get him to at least ask the other man out, Ace had always brushed him off with weak excuses.

That didn't mean Sanji wasn't going to keep trying, however, as much as Ace probably hated him for it.

"And you must be Law," Marco held out his hand and Law took it hesitantly, nodding once. "Trust me, you're in good hands with this one. Both of these ones, actually," he amended. "But if there's anything you need, don't hesitate to ask. And don't look so serious," Marco chided gently. "We want you to enjoy yourself, okay?"

"I'm beginning to see that," Law admitted softly.

"Good. I'll let you get on with it. Come see me later?" he directed this toward Ace, who turned a rather impressive shade of scarlet and nodded tightly. "Right. Have fun, boys," he ruffled Sanji's hair and clapped Ace on the shoulder on his way out, and Ace stared after him and sighed deeply.

"Ask him out," Sanji said without preamble as Ace hissed at him to be quiet. "Seriously, what's the worst that could happen?"

"He rejects me? Which is going to happen, because no fucking way would a guy like him want to date a porn model," Ace grimaced and Sanji rolled his eyes.

"Forgive me for interjecting, but wouldn't it be rather hypocritical for the owner of a kink site to reject somebody who worked in the same industry?" Law put in softly, looking unsure if his observation would be welcome.

Ace sighed, crossing his arms and leveling Sanji with a rather unimpressed look.

"Maybe, but I'm still not asking him. He's too good for me," Ace muttered the last part quietly although Sanji still heard him, and it made his heart ache. Ace, for all of his put-on bravado and endless good nature, thought very little of himself and Sanji would _always_ hate that he couldn't do more to help his friend see just how much of a catch he really was.

"Well," Law looked between both of them before undoing his robe again. "Should we…"

"Yeah. Yes," Ace shook himself out of his thoughts. "Take that off and lie down on the table," he instructed, and Law gave the structure an appraising glance before doing so, setting his head on the square wooden plank between two of the arms of the 'X' and spreading his limbs out along the four longer boards.

Ace went to work immediately, tying his wrists and ankles first before threading ropes around his chest and thighs as well.

"Oh, I wanted to ask, what's your refractory period?" he twirled the extra ends of the rope around each other to create a sort of decorative harness, criss-crossing them over Law's stomach.

"I've never exactly _measured,"_ Law pursed his lips. "But considering that I'm young and healthy, I'm assuming it would be fairly quick," he frowned, shifting a little on the hard surface.

"Well, you're gonna find out," Ace promised and Sanji groaned, because that meant he'd get to come more than once and he was looking forward to it. Ace moved away and Sanji yelped when the ropes holding him dropped a bit, but Ace of course wouldn't let him fall and moved him down just enough that their cocks rested against each other. He could probably kiss Law if he craned his neck down, and when Ace walked back over he noticed that both of them were about crotch-height on the other man.

Yeah. That wasn't a coincidence, either.

"So? Ready to get started again?" Ace was looking more at ease now that he was back in full control and while Sanji didn't intend to let the topic of Marco drop forever, now he had to focus his mind on other things.

"Ready," Law looked a little nervous, his hands clenched into fists, and Sanji lowered his nose to nuzzle against Law's, trying to reassure him.

"Good. Let's do this."

000

"I swear, I never wanted this," Sanji was breathing heavily, struggling as much as he could against the ropes. "I don't want to see you like this, I just…"

"I know. Calm down," Law's voice was even and Sanji thought how strange it was that he was playing the panicked one when he was probably far more relaxed than Law at the moment. "We don't have much of a choice right now but to do whatever he wants."

"You should listen to your friend," Ace's voice came from behind them and Sanji gasped when his hand came down heavily on the blond's ass. "Who knows, I might even let you escape sooner if you're good."

"I really doubt that," Sanji grumbled, getting another smack for his trouble, and he whimpered and closed his eyes. "What do you want with us?"

"You really don't know when to shut up, do you?" Ace clicked his tongue in disapproval, coming around to the front and holding up a pair of clover clamps.

"No…no, please, I'll be good, I…" Sanji squirmed and his mouth dropped open when Ace attached one of them to his left nipple, the weight of it pulling down and making him whine. The chain lay across Law's chest, brushing his own nipples, and Law hissed as the cold metal met his heated skin.

"What do you think, hmm?" Ace grabbed his chin, forcing Sanji to meet his eyes. "Do you want the other one? Or should I share the love between the two of you?" he grinned.

"I get to choose?" Sanji asked carefully, glancing at Law and not really getting any sense of what he wanted from his perpetually steely expression. "Me."

"Such a good friend," Ace made it sound as if he was utterly disgusted by it as he fastened the other clamp, the sharp jab of pain making Sanji's eyes roll back.

They had discovered pretty early on that Sanji had extremely sensitive nipples, and any chance Ace got to exploit that, he took it…not that Sanji minded, of course, since it only turned him on even more.

"Stop hurting him," Law growled, balking when Ace turned his attention to him.

"I don't want to hurt either of you," Ace said, his voice much too sweet to be genuine. "But I expect you to behave, and every time you don't, you get punished."

Law stayed quiet, but the look on his face was murderous and if Sanji was faced with that in real life he'd definitely be a little wary.

"Good," Ace stood up and pushed his pants down, grabbing the ropes above Sanji again to ease the tension there. "Suck."

Law looked disgusted, but he obediently stuck his tongue out, running it along the underside of Ace's cock. Sanji craned his neck down, slipping his lips over the head and sucking gently.

"Good. Damn, you boys are pretty," Ace chuckled, holding the base of his cock in his free hand and keeping it steady for them. "Mm, see how nice this can be when you follow orders?" he asked as they kept moving, and Sanji chanced a look at Law to see that his eyes were half-closed, a flush starting to rise in his cheeks.

Law flicked his tongue out, pressing sucking kisses to any part of Ace's dick he could reach, and Sanji tried to match his rhythm. Law's cock was starting to nudge against his more insistently as they both because more aroused and it felt fucking _amazing._

"Enough," Ace released the ropes, causing Sanji to swing a little before he was caught and steadied again. He could tell that Ace wasn't nearly as unaffected as he was pretending to be and that made him grin because apparently he and Law made a damn good team. "I think you boys deserve a little reward."

"You could let us go," Law suggested, but instead of getting angry this time Ace merely smiled.

"I could. But I won't," he moved out of sight for a moment before Sanji heard footsteps behind him. "Instead, I think we'll play a little game."

Sanji's head snapped up when Ace gripped both of their cocks in his hand, and then he felt a rather tight band slipping around his heated flesh before something cold and metal made him squirm.

"Oh, fuck," Law started to breathe heavily, his head tossing from side-to-side. He could see what was happening, though, and Sanji was about to ask when a buzzing noise filled the room and the vibrations right where he was the most sensitive made him moan.

Now he knew what was going on, at least: Ace had strapped their cocks together and slid a vibrator between them, and even though he couldn't see, he could imagine what a sight they must make.

"What's the game?" Law gasped, his words trailing off into a high-pitched ' _ah!"_ when Ace turned the vibrator up even higher.

"You're both going to come," Ace murmured, running his hand along Sanji's ass and pressing a slick finger to his entrance.

Sanji relaxed, his eyes rolling back at the onslaught of sensation.

He wasn't going to last at this rate, and especially not when Ace added another finger and pushed deep, nudging his prostate and making him cry out.

"And then?" Law looked up at Sanji, his golden eyes nearly all pupil. "Then what?"

"Patience," Ace was three fingers in now and Sanji was moaning shamelessly, trying to fuck himself back against them. "As I said, you're both going to come. Whoever comes first, however, will get a…prize," he murmured.

"Yeah, right," Law muttered under his breath.

"You have no reason not to trust me," Ace sounded so utterly disappointed and Sanji tried not to laugh.

"I can think of plenty, actually," Law replied dryly, his mouth snapping shut when Ace hummed thoughtfully.

"Hmm, I guess you don't listen to rules very well, do you?" Ace sighed heavily. "What a shame. Your friend seems like he's rather enjoying himself," he pulled his fingers out and Sanji whimpered at the loss, because Ace knew every single way to make him fall apart and he'd been well on his way to getting there.

He wasn't expecting the hard 'smack' of a paddle against his ass and he jerked, mouth dropping open.

"Hey!" Law snapped. "You said…"

"I said I'd punish you if you misbehaved," Ace's hand landed gently on the stinging skin, rubbing over it to sooth the mark. "But I never said _who_ I'd punish," he tapped the paddle against Sanji's thigh and the blond shivered. "I have a feeling you'll be _much_ more inclined to behave if you know somebody else is getting hurt."

Law nodded but didn't say anything, though he was biting his lip so hard it was turning white.

"Now, I'm going to come back in a few minutes," Ace turned the vibrator up again, making both of them gasp. "When I do, you'll tell me who came first. And you'd better tell the truth," he walked away, his footsteps getting quieter until the door to the room slammed shut.

" _Shit,"_ Sanji moaned, trying in vain to buck his hips and create more friction. He knew that it didn't really matter who came first because Ace probably already had an idea of what he wanted to do.

Law didn't really make any noise, but his body was starting to shake, and when he took a gasping breath a tiny choked-off whine slipped out of his mouth.

"Oh, fuck," Sanji could feel himself getting close and he looked at Law, leaning closer. "Do…do you…"

"Yes," Law clipped the word short, his body arching up, and the extra friction against Sanji's cock was all it took.

He couldn't tell which one of them actually came first, but his entire body was trembling when he came down and Law didn't look much better, mouth hanging open as he gasped for breath.

"Good boys," Ace was there again, of course, and he turned off the vibrator as Sanji slumped gratefully against the ropes. "So. Who's the lucky winner?"

"Me," Law said immediately, his voice a little hoarse.

"Really, now?" Ace rubbed his thumb over the sensitive head of Sanji's cock and he cried out.

"Yes," Law sounded confident. "So stop hurting him."

"It's sweet how you both want to take the fall for each other," Ace moved his hand away. "Well, sit tight. Not that you can go anywhere, but…" he chuckled. "I'll come take you to your prize in a couple of minutes," he left them again.

"You didn't have to…"

"Yes, I did," Law cut him off. "I told you, he's not hurting you anymore. It's my fault you're in this mess anyway."

"Law…" Sanji trailed off, his head hanging down. "We're gonna die here, aren't we?" he whispered.

"No. No, we're not going to die. We're going to get out," Law promised, and Sanji thought that if he and Law actually _had_ been in serious danger the utter conviction in his tone would have made Sanji believe those words.

"Really?" Sanji's breath caught when Law tilted his chin up, but it felt right and there was no reason not to.

"Really," Law pressed their lips together and Sanji sobbed against his mouth, half in character and half from his body still coming down from what had just happened.

"I don't want you to get hurt, either," Sanji whispered in between kisses, and Law kissed the tip of his nose.

"I'll be fine. We'll both be fine. You'll see," he kissed Sanji again, neither of them willing to pull away.

"Uh…guys?" the voice of one of the cameramen interrupted. "We're done filming, you can…"

Sanji paused for barely a breath before Law's tongue flicked against his lips and then he didn't care because he wanted to kiss Law whether they were filming or not.

000

"You like him."

"Uh, yeah. He's fucking hot," Sanji blew out a cloud of smoke and glared at Ace when the older man swiped the cigarette to take a drag of his own.

"No, I mean…more than that. I _was_ watching the whole time, Sanji," Ace was grinning madly and Sanji sighed, figuring that Ace would have found _some_ way to pay him back for pestering him about Marco all the time. "I've worked with you for years. You're not the type of guy to make out with a stranger after the cameras stop rolling."

Sanji smiled to himself, leaning back against the balcony rail. "Technically I don't know a fucking thing about him, but I trust him," he decided that would be a good enough answer for Ace. He didn't trust other guys easily, not at work or outside of it, but Law was…different.

"Honestly, if they gave out academy awards for porn, you two would be winning one after that performance," Ace nudged him gently and Sanji blushed, because he hadn't realized they'd been _that_ into each other. "It's good. You can't fake that sort of chemistry."

"Well, you'd better milk it for all it's worth today, since who knows if he'll want to come back," Sanji grabbed his cigarette back from Ace and inhaled.

Ace didn't get a chance to reply before the door slid open and Law stepped out, his robe held tight around his body and the tips of his hair damp. Sanji didn't feel the need to take a shower after _every_ scene because he was used to it by now, but he knew a lot of the guys preferred to if they had time.

"Hey!" Ace sprang up from his leaning position and moved in front of Law. "How're you doing? Can I get you anything?"

"Your cameramen wouldn't let me leave until I ate and drank something," Law admitted, settling himself against the rail beside Sanji. "You take care of us very well."

"Of course we do," Ace looked offended that he had thought otherwise. "But seriously, if there's anything you need, tell us."

"I do…have one thing…" Law stopped, like he wasn't sure if he could speak freely.

"Say it," Sanji reached over and laid his fingers over Law's, stroking the back of his hand gently.

"I was…I wouldn't have any issue if you touched me more," he gave Ace a level look and Ace tilted his head to the side, frowning. "Other than tying me up, you haven't. And…" he looked at Sanji, who glanced up at the sky because yeah, Ace had been three fingers deep in his ass so he knew what Law was talking about.

"Oh! Yeah, I mean, I know what Sanji likes and that he's fine with me doing things like that to him, but I wanted to make sure you were comfortable," he crossed his arms and Law nodded in understanding.

"I appreciate that, truly. But…"

"Well," Ace stepped closer, looping his arms around Law's neck and leaning in. "You've still got to collect your prize."

"I do," Law's voice was throaty, full of sex and promise and Sanji tried not to react because he could probably fucking come just listening to him talk. "I think I'd like to see what I've won."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll enjoy it," Ace leaned in to kiss him and Law set one arm around his waist, turning it slow and sensual. "Right now I'm kind of wishing I wasn't supposed to be mean to you."

"At this point I'm rather convinced it's all an act," Law promised, which made Ace look more relieved.

"Good! Let me get some things set up and then…" he winked and kissed Law again, pulling away with obvious reluctance.

He stole the cigarette back from Sanji and headed into the building, leaving the blond huffing in irritation because he didn't have extras on him. Laying his head on Law's shoulder, Sanji half-closed his eyes and thought that Ace had a definite point in how comfortable being around Law made him feel.

It was fine, though, since it was apparently making the shoot better, and that's all he really needed to worry about.

Or, at least, that was all he would allow himself to worry about.

"Are you really enjoying yourself?" he murmured, sighing when Law let his own head rest against Sanji's.

"I wasn't sure what to think coming in here but...yes. I truly am," he promised…and, from what he'd seen so far, Sanji couldn't help but believe him.

 **Notes:**

 **1.** Thank you all so much for the lovely feedback on the first chapter of this fic! It's definitely not anything like what I've written before so it's nice to hear that people are enjoying it!

 **2.** As always, feel free to leave a comment on this chapter as well if you enjoyed it – they do inspire me to write quicker :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Title:** Control  
 **Author:** kikokus (AoiTsukikage)  
 **Rating:** NC-17  
 **Characters/Pairing:** Law/Sanji, Ace/Sanji, Ace/Law, Ace/Law/Sanji  
 **Chapter:** 3/?  
 **Word Count:** 3901  
 **Summary:** In which Sanji and Ace are models for a BDSM site and Law's the new guy doing his first shoot (Dom!Ace, sub!Sanji-and-Law)

 **Chapter Three**

"I think your definition of the word 'prize' needs updating."

"Does it?" Ace grinned, running his fingers up Law's toned abs. "You seemed jealous that I was paying your friend more attention than you, so you should appreciate this."

"I would _appreciate_ it if you dropped dead," Law snarled, getting a tiny laugh from the other man.

"As much as I like to hear you run your mouth and make this even harder on yourself, seeing how pretty you'll look with a gag in is more important to me," he traced a finger lightly down Law's cheek. "I'll be back."

He left then and Sanji peered out from the cage he was currently being kept in, wrapping his fingers around the bars and glancing at Law.

The contraption Ace had him strung up in was something to behold. It was essentially three long boards, one that his back was braced against and the other two spaced far enough apart that Law had to spread his legs in order to reach them. He was strapped onto each one with several belts, rendering him almost immobile, and his hands were cuffed over his head and attached to a chain that was embedded in a beam on the ceiling. The bottom of the boards his legs were bound to were chained into the floor, just high enough off the ground that Law was unable to reach with his feet.

It was an intensely vulnerable position and one that Sanji knew couldn't be comfortable, since Law couldn't put any weight on his feet, but it gave Sanji a perfect view of everything Ace would be doing and he was pretty sure that was at least part of the reason why the older man had chosen it.

" _Law,"_ he hissed, getting a slow blink from the other man. "Why can't you just apologize?"

"You really think he'll make it easier if I do?" Law barked a bitter-sounding laugh. "No, it won't matter what I say anymore."

"At least…" Sanji cut off when Ace came back in, carrying a few things under his arm that he set aside on a nearby table.

"Open your mouth," Ace had to reach up to do the gag, since Law was taller than him and being a couple of inches off of the ground only made the height different worse. Law tried to toss his head but Ace gripped his hair, holding him in place and shoving the gag between his teeth.

"I figured a wild stallion like you needs to be _broken,"_ he murmured, and Sanji noticed that the gag he'd chosen was indeed a bit gag. How appropriate, he thought with a wry grin.

Law growled around the bit, trying to jerk his head away.

It caused the two slim chains hanging from the ends of the bit to smack against his chest and he tried to look down, his eyes widening.

"I'd stop trying to get away if I were you," Ace picked up one of the chains so that Law could see the clamps connected to the end of them. "If you try to move your head back, you're only going to hurt yourself," he dropped the chain and pressed his lips to Law's chest, his mouth closing around one of the other man's nipples, his fingers coming up to tease the other.

He was moving almost painfully slowly, rolling one hardening bud between his fingers while his mouth worked at the other, nipping and sucking with relish.

Law moaned softly, his eyes half-closed and his cheeks starting to flush, and Sanji grinned because apparently Law's nipples were as sensitive as his own.

Ace slid his free hand down Law's body, wrapping around his cock and starting to stroke almost agonizingly slowly as Law attempted to buck his hips into the touch.

"See? You're enjoying this," Ace nipped at the other man's chest, reaching to pull one of the chains closer and attaching the clamp to one of Law's peaked nipples.

That action caused Law to let out a louder moan, quickly cut off, but his voice was so fucking sexy at the best of times that hearing him not hold back now was making Sanji's own libido start to take interest again.

Ace quickly attached the other clamp, tugging the chain between them until it was taught and causing Law to groan, the sound catching in his throat.

"Look at you. So fucking shameless," Ace kept stroking his cock, working him expertly to full hardness. A streak of saliva dripped off of the bit, splashing down onto his erection, and Ace snickered. "Are you trying to help me out?" he teased, bending down to suck the head of Law's cock into his mouth and hollowing his cheeks.

Law looked overwhelmed, his eyes rolling back and his hands clenched in the chains connecting them above his head. He let out a stuttered gasp when Ace took his cock deeper, and Sanji could see the other man's fingers probing back, disappearing between Law's legs.

Law garbled out something that sounded suspiciously like, 'oh, _fuck,"_ and Sanji felt his cock twitch at the sight in front of him, willing himself not to get hard because he likely wouldn't be coming again for at least a while so there was no point in it.

It was difficult, though, considering the scene in front of him and the way Law was trembling and moaning quietly, all of his earlier inhibitions apparently gone as he rolled his head from side-to-side and gasped.

"Mm," Ace pulled off of Law's cock with a lewd 'smack,' kissing back up his quivering stomach. He slipped his fingers out of Law's ass and Sanji figured that meant he was ready to get some other sort of toy set up, but to the blond's surprise Ace took a step back and glanced behind him.

"Can we cut?" Ace looked at the cameramen and made a slashing motion across his throat. Sanji was immediately concerned, because from what he could see nothing was wrong, but when he looked at Law closer he could see that he was far too tense and his breath seemed more panicked than aroused. "Hey," Ace eased the gag out and Law coughed a little, his eyes wide and spooked. "Law, breathe. Slowly," he murmured, and Law glanced at him although Sanji could tell whatever he was seeing wasn't the room in front of him.

"Ace," he hissed, and Ace took another look at Law before he stepped away and ran to undo the bolt holding the cage door shut. "I need a…" he saw a wooden cube nearby and went to grab it, setting it in front of Law and hopping up so that they were the same height.

Law blinked at him, his eyes still glassy and unfocused. It was something Sanji had seen before, but never to this level.

There were some people that, instead of outwardly panicking, shut down entirely when they were faced with a situation that made them uncomfortable, and Law had done that in a pretty major way.

"Law. Look at me, babe," he murmured, not even thinking about the endearment.

It was enough to startle Law out of his daze and he gasped again his eyes zeroing in on Sanji.

"Hey," Sanji reached to cup his cheeks, his thumbs brushing along Law's cheekbones. "You're safe, okay?"

Law nodded absently, visibly swallowing. "I…"

"You just…shut down," Ace came back over, reaching to rest his hand on Law's hip. "We wanted to make sure you were doing okay."

"I'm fine," Law still looked a little confused, but he was definitely calming down. "I apologize."

"Don't be sorry," Sanji leaned in, nuzzling his neck. "You being comfortable is the most important thing."

"Still," Law pressed his nose into Sanji's hair. "I'm okay."

"Okay," Sanji leaned up to press a quick kiss to his lips, feeling Law relax into the touch. "You sure?"

"Yes," Law gave him a tired-looking smile, but it was an honest one, and Sanji felt better about it. "Thank you. Both of you," he directed this to Ace, who wrapped his arms around Law's waist and nosed against his stomach.

"Of course," Ace promised. "'But this is good, in a way. Now we know that you're a cuddler," he grinned and Law turned a rather interesting shade of red.

"I'm not certain how that's a good thing..."

"After a scene, some people want to be alone and have their own space, and some people respond better to touch. You're the second one," Ace clarified, and Law furrowed his brow before nodding slowly.

"I suppose it makes sense…if I were by myself I'd likely close off more," he admitted. Sanji gave him a last quick embrace before hopping off of the wooden block and moving it back out of the way.

"Both of us are, too, so that'll work out nicely," Ace moved back over to the cage, waiting for Sanji to crawl inside before he re-bolted the door. "You sure you're okay to continue?"

"Yes," Law's jaw had a rather defiant set and his eyes flashed gold when he raised his chin up.

"Good. Let's get rolling."

000

"You're really something, you know?" Ace was trailing one hand almost leisurely up and down Law's stomach, staring up at him in what Sanji knew was half-acting and half-an excuse to keep an eye on him for a while longer. "Fuck, I've wanted you since the first time I laid eyes on you," he purred, which caused Law to growl something at him from around the gag.

He'd slipped back into character remarkably quickly and, looking at him now, Sanji thought he seemed completely cam and present. Still, he'd watch him when Ace couldn't, just to be sure.

Ace stepped back to pick something else up off of the table, wetting his fingers with more lube and running his slicked hand up Law's cock. "I want to see how much you can take," he held up the contraption, a cock ring fitted with an attached butt plug, and Law's eyes widened as he tried to squirm back, though that was impossible with how he was restrained.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Ace gripped his cock securely in one hand, sliding the head of it through the ring he'd grabbed and working it down until it was resting against his groin. He eased his fingers into Law again, pressing his nose to the other man's quivering stomach and licking at the skin there.

Law's eyes were half-closed, his body reacting instinctively to the touches as he rolled his hips back.

"Good boy," Ace drew his fingers out and eased the plug back, the connecting piece running along the underside of his cock and over his balls as Ace inserted it. "You know what I'm going to do now?"

Law shook his head, not even trying to speak anymore, and Ace sighed and hooked a finger in the chain between the gag and the nipple clamps, pulling it forward enough that Law whined in pain.

"From now on, you answer me when I ask you a question," he growled, getting a jerky nod.

"I said, 'do you know what I'm going to do now?'"

Law tried to say something, but for all Sanji knew he could have been telling Ace to go fuck himself because the shape of the gag made it impossible for him to form actual words.

"Interesting," Ace started stroking Law's cock idly again, looking almost bored. "I'm going to assume you said 'turn it on', because that would be the right answer," he pressed a button on the top of the cock ring and Sanji could hear a tiny vibrator whirr to life.

Law's entire body jerked, his toes curling in mid-air and his hands clasping around the chains holding him to the ceiling.

"Does that feel good?" Ace chuckled, licking a bead of pre-cum off of the head of Law's dick. "I can make it better," he reached back and the vibrations got louder as Law moaned, unable to keep quiet anymore over the onslaught of sensation. "So fucking beautiful," Ace hummed, and Sanji made a mental note to ask Ace to use that on him sometime because _two_ vibrators in one toy had to feel amazing.

Law was squirming against his bonds, saliva dripping from his mouth and running down his chest, and watching him lose control was something Sanji wanted to imprint in his memory forever. 'Fucking beautiful' didn't even begin to cover it, although it was probably a good place to start.

"Now," Ace reached to ease the gag out, leaving it hanging around Law's neck so that it didn't put too much extra pressure on the clamps. "How is this going to end, hmm?"

"You're…not going to let me…come…" Law gasped, and Sanji could tell he was already holding back.

"Oh, you can come," Ace looked surprised that he would think such a thing. "If you do, I'll move my attention over to him, but feel free to come."

" _No,"_ Law snarled, jerking back when Ace slapped his cheek lightly. "You're not touching him!"

"You don't have a say in the matter," Ace chided him, pouting a bit. "I can do whatever I want to him, but I'm a man of my word."

"Ha!" the word cut off in a low groan as Law's eyes rolled back and Sanji could tell he was trying to do everything in his power to stop from having an orgasm.

"Law, it's fine!" Sanji yelled, flinching back obediently when Ace turned to glare at him.

"Hmm, if you're so eager to get started, we can…"

"No. Leave him alone," Law's entire body was shaking now, his muscles tensed. "Leave him…I'm… _hah!"_

"Just let go, pretty boy," Ace cooed, swiping more pre-cum off with his fingers and lifting them to Law's mouth. "I might give you a break."

Law sucked on instinct, but the look in his eyes was downright violent. "I don't care what you do to me. I'm not giving you that satisfaction," he half-smirked before Ace shoved the gag back in.

"Fine," Ace didn't look put-off at all. "Have it your way. And then when you come…and you _will_ …I'll just have had more time to think about what I'm going to do to your friend," he looked back toward Sanji, Law trying to moan something around the gag again that Ace ignored. "You've only got yourself to blame," he added, lightly tracing one finger up Law's cock before stepping away.

Law was holding the chains so tightly now that his knuckles were turning white, his brow furrowed as he fought against his body's natural urge to let go.

That was how Ace ended the scene, directing the cameras to cut, and Sanji gripped the bars of the cage and swallowed heavily.

He wouldn't mind if Ace did any of that to him, of course, but watching it being done to Law…

That was good, too.

000

"I feel like I ruined the shoot."

"You didn't ruin the shoot, how many times do I have to tell you that?" Sanji had his head laing on Law's shoulder and was rubbing his thigh absently through the thick cotton robe. Law had recovered remarkably quickly after they'd gotten him unstrapped and down on the ground again, taking off to the showers and coming out looking none the worse for wear.

"Still, you had to stop filming, and…"

Sanji really didn't want to be rude, but no matter how many times he and Ace had both told Law it was fine and that there were easy ways to cover it up – cutting away to another angle before resuming the original footage – Law still seemed to think he'd failed and would be in trouble for Ace making the decision to break character and check in on him.

The last part of their shoot wasn't scheduled until evening, which meant Law had a lot of time to apparently feel guilty over this.

"It's okay. It's happened before…lots of times, in fact. It happens in live shoots, too, and the members understand," Sanji assured him quietly. "You're being put through a lot and sometimes your body reacts in ways nobody can anticipate. It's not your fault."

"I may be a bit of a perfectionist," Law muttered and Sanji heaved a relieved sigh, because Law being self-deprecating was better than nothing.

"Yeah, well, you're doing a pretty perfect job so far," he wrapped his arms around Law and nuzzled into his neck. "Fuck, I've been doing this for years, and I don't think I could have held off coming the way you did in that last scene."

"I rarely lose a challenge when I'm faced with one," Law sounded like he was smirking, his nose pressed into Sanji's hair. "I hope I'm performing adequately, in any case."

"From what I hear, you're doing a commendable job."

Law stiffened immediately but Sanji didn't let go of him, waiting until he relaxed to back off a bit. "Hey, Marco."

"Ace came to get me because he said you had some concerns?" Marco sat down on the other side of Law, looking as unruffled and drowsy as ever, and Law shrugged one shoulder rather listlessly.

"I…Ace decided to stop the scene because he was worried for my safety," he mumbled, looking as if it were a great blow to his pride just to utter the words.

"Was he right to do so?"

"In the end? Probably," Law muttered, almost too low to hear.

"So it all worked out," Marco said it so bluntly that Law's head snapped up, his eyes meeting the older man's. "Look, Law, I know you're new here, but I don't fire people for needing to stop a scene when their safety or well-being is in question. Nothing we do here is without consent, and every single person in that room…you, Sanji, Ace, all the cameramen… _any_ of them can call for a scene to stop at any time if they think something is wrong," he raised a hand and set it on Law's shoulder, squeezing gently. "So don't beat yourself up for not anticipating how your body or your mind would react in a strange situation, okay?"

Law didn't really say anything, but he nodded once and Marco seemed to take that as an agreement.

"Good. Don't be afraid to tell these guys if you have concerns in the future, and if you really don't feel comfortable doing that for some reason, you can always come straight to me," he patted Law's shoulder before lifting his hand away.

"I will. Thank you," Law still looked a little chagrined but he didn't raise any more objections.

"Right, then. I'll let you boys get on with things," Marco stopped beside Ace on the way out, glancing over at him. "I still need to talk to you after you're done. Just about scheduling things for next week," he clarified, and Ace let out a relieved sigh at that. "Seriously, him I can forgive thinking he's in trouble since it's his first day, but for as long as you've worked here you really need to be less afraid of me, Ace," he teased,, patting Ace's cheek before leaving the room, and Sanji resisted the urge to yell after him that it wasn't _fear_ that was making Ace hesitant around him.

Ace stared after Marco and sighed heavily before wandering over, hands stuffed in the pockets of his jeans and trying to look at nonchalant as possible.

"I can see why you like him so much," Law mentioned idly, and Sanji had to stifle a laugh into his shoulder at the way Ace's eyes lit up.

"He's amazing, right?" Ace had a dreamy look on his face as he sat on Law's other side. "He used to actually do shoots, before he started getting all corporate," he sniffed and Sanji rolled his eyes.

"You're just mad because you never got to work with him," he teased, getting a glare from the dark-haired man.

"He's still got some stuff up on the site, so I've watched them to see just what makes him such a good dom…"

"So you watched them purely for research. _Right,"_ Sanji nuzzled Law's neck and even Law was grinning at that.

"You two are awful," Ace pouted for a few seconds before breaking into a grin, and Sanji knew he could get away with teasing Ace about this because Ace _knew_ just how fucking head-over-heels he was for Marco, even if he might never do anything about it.

"Anyway," Law cleared his throat, looking a little hesitant again. "We've got one more scene, right?"

"Yeah. After dinner, though, because you guys've had a long afternoon and you should eat something more than granola bars before we get started again," Ace patted his stomach and Sanji knew that he was probably starving since Ace could pack away enough food for about five people at one sitting. "Oh, but speaking of that, I wanted to ask you something…"

"Hmm?" Law blinked at him, tilting his head to the side. "What is it?"

"I know you listed your hard limits before coming in, but a lot of people do that as a precaution and then ease off once they get comfortable with the shoot and the people," Ace explained, throwing his arm over Law's shoulders and leaning in close. "And what I'd _really_ like is for Sanji to fuck you."

Sanji let out a little involuntary groan at that because _fuck,_ he wanted that, too, but if Law had said no coming in he had no obligation to agree to changing his limits.

"We use protection," Ace added. "Not for some things, but everybody's tested regularly here and I know you wouldn't be here at all if you hadn't been before coming in. But for anal, we always do," he nodded and Law gave him an appraising look.

"Doesn't that…ruin the effect of the scene? I can't imagine most kidnappers would bother with condoms," he sniffed, Ace snickering and leaning to kiss his cheek.

"Safety first. Always," he tilted Law's head toward him and kissed him properly, humming softly. "It's completely up to you."

"Can I think about it?" Law asked, and Ace kissed him again, holding it until Law relaxed enough to return the kiss.

"Of course. I've got backup plans either way," he stood up and glanced out the door, his eyes lighting up. "I smell food, though, so I'll grab us some things and be right back," he said before damn near sprinting out of the room.

Law's shoulders slumped after Ace left, his eyes cast down toward the floor. Sanji curled up and rested against his shoulder, hoping to offer some comfort for whatever Law was currently trying to think through.

"It's really okay if you don't want to," he promised. "I mean, it'd be fucking hot, but…."

"If it's you?" Law looked at him seriously and Sanji forced himself to not stare into those strange golden eyes for too long. "I think I'd be okay with it."

"I'll make it good," Sanji kissed him to cover up how flattered he truly was at the words, but he couldn't stop the tiny thrill of excitement from zinging through his stomach at the prospect.

Yeah. He was going to enjoy this.

 **Notes:**

 **1.** I don't have much to say this time around, but thank you all so much for all of the lovely comments and reviews I've gotten on this fic so far! And please keep letting me know what you think and if you're enjoying this!


	4. Chapter 4

**Title:** Control  
 **Author:** kikokus (AoiTsukikage)  
 **Rating:** NC-17  
 **Characters/Pairing:** Law/Sanji, Ace/Sanji, Ace/Law, Ace/Law/Sanji  
 **Chapter:** 4/?  
 **Word Count:** 3047  
 **Summary:** In which Sanji and Ace are models for a BDSM site and Law's the new guy doing his first shoot (Dom!Ace, sub!Sanji-and-Law)

 **Chapter Four**

"Do you ever switch roles?"

"Switch roles in what way?" Ace had piled his plate high enough for about five people and was ploughing through the food at an alarming rate while Law watched him with an expression halfway between awe and horror.

"I mean, if somebody comes here and does their first shoot as a sub, are they stuck being a sub forever?" he clarified and Ace shook his head, swallowing a mouthful of food with a mighty effort.

"Nah. You can be whatever you want as long as it's believable. I mean, it takes a lot more work to be a dom, because you've got to be aware of all times of safety and making sure the scene keeps moving along. Plus there's knot-tying and learning how to properly use all of the devices," he gestured around and Law nodded in understanding. "And if something goes wrong, it's the dom's responsibility, of course, so there's also that factor to consider."

Law looked thoughtful as he chewed, eventually nodding once more. "And all the subs need to worry about is their own comfort level, right?"

"Exactly. So for some people it's definitely more about what they have time for as opposed to what role they'd take if they were in a scene outside of being paid to do it," he leaned back, sighing and patting his stomach. "I mean, Sanji's definitely _not_ a natural sub; he just plays one beautifully," Ace grinned and Sanji reached over to swat his arm.

"I just don't have time to do more," Sanji explained, leaning his chin on his hand and glancing at Law. "My old man runs a fancy restaurant in town and cooking's my real passion, but he's got me working there odd hours so finding another job is almost impossible, but here I can set my own hours and even if I'm only in once every month or every two months it's still a nice cash boost," he grinned, because making $500 just for being tied up was a pretty sweet gig.

"You're a chef?" Law looked suitably impressed and Sanji had to smile because that was about the first time he'd seen that emotion from the other man.

"He's damn good," Ace replied, slinging his arm over Sanji's shoulders and leaning in. "Seriously, you _have_ to try his food."

"I'd like that," Law smiled at him and Sanji felt his cheeks flush, because fuck him if Law's entire face didn't soften with that rather kind expression.

"Come to the Baratie one day. I'll cook for you," Sanji managed to mumble, even though it wasn't easy with Ace snickering in his ear.

Law didn't reply to say what he'd do one way or the other, but the invitation was out there now and Sanji wasn't about to take it back.

000

"You good?"

Law nodded, his eyes half-closed, but he met Sanji's mouth willingly enough when the blond leaned down to kiss him.

Ace had promised he'd 'go easy' on them during the last scene since Law especially wasn't used to working a whole day in this sort of environment, but 'going easy' was still hardly a walk in the park.

He and Law were still kissing, slow and sensual and Sanji could feel it down to the tips of his toes…or, well, that might have been because he was currently balls-deep in Law's ass, but he was pretty sure it was the kiss.

"Mm," Law broke away, tipping his head back and groaning softly. "I'm not used to…ah…somebody being inside me without more movement happening," he admitted, his cheeks flushed a little and looking almost adorably innocent.

"I know, babe," Sanji kissed him again and Law surrendered willingly to him.

Sanji realized it was the second time he'd called Law that, but since the other man didn't seem to mind, he figured it was okay. He squeezed Law's hands reassuringly, shifting his knees on the bed.

Law was on his back on one of the many beds they had scattered around the studio, each wrist bound first to Sanji's opposite one and then to the headboard. His legs were on either side of Sanji's waist, both ankles roped to a thicker cord around Sanji's middle so that neither could move without pulling the other along with them.

Sanji was on his knees, legs spread, each of his own ankles bound and tied off underneath the bed, and Ace had decided for the sake of making things run smoother once they started rolling that he should already be inside Law.

That had been a little frightening, because for as much as Law had claimed he was fine with it, he'd shut down remarkably quickly when Sanji had started to prep him and only a lot of soft touches and coaxing words could keep him in the present.

He was okay now, thankfully, but Sanji still felt like he needed to keep Law _there_ and Law certainly seemed to have no issues with how physical he was being.

"Hey, lovebirds," Ace wandered over, reaching to stroke his fingers gently through Law's fluffy hair. He was completely naked for the first time all day (and Sanji knew how hard that was on him, since Ace seemed to have a thing against clothing…or at least shirts…in general) and Sanji noticed Law eyeing him up appraisingly – not that he blamed him, really. "Still doing good?"

"Yes," Law said immediately, pushing his head up into Ace's hand.

"Good," Ace kept petting his hair, a rather thoughtful expression on his face. "I suggest if you want to keep making out you do it within the next minute or so, because you won't be able to once the scene starts," he murmured in a low voice, his hand sliding down the arch of Sanji's spine in a gentle caress.

"We'd better get on it, then," Sanji flashed a grin over his shoulder before leaning to kiss Law again, not breaking away until he felt a tug on his hair and reluctantly lifted his head, letting Ace slip a ball gag between his teeth and bending forward so the other man could fasten it.

Law got similar treatment before Ace brought over the collar he'd been wearing in the first scene and fastened it around Law's neck again, taking the chain and looping it around the headboard a few times.

"Okay," he straightened up, his fingers stroking carefully over Sanji's shoulder. "Let's go."

000

"I hope you boys have figured out by now that no amount of begging or pleading or _bargaining_ is going to get you anywhere with me," Ace trailed the tails of a flogger almost teasingly over Sanji's ass before bringing it down abruptly.

Sanji flinched at the sting, trying to shift away, but he could barely move so that was impossible.

Law mumbled something angry-sounding around the gag that made Ace chuckle, and this time the flogger wasn't nearly so gentle when it snapped over his skin. The blond gasped, his breath quickening when the strokes came in rapid succession, the long tails of the flogger skimming over his already-sensitized skin with every stroke and making the pain more intense.

"How about this?" Ace's hand landed on his lower back, rubbing down gently over his stinging ass, and Sanji half-closed his eyes and moaned in obvious discomfort. "Every time you're smart with me, that's what he gets. You don't want to cause your little friend more pain, do you?" Ace clicked his tongue, gripping Law's hair and pulling his head up until he coughed, the collar tight against his throat. Law kept staring at him defiantly so Ace shrugged, letting him drop and snapping the flogger down again. "I guess you don't care if he can't sit for a couple of days."

"Mm!" Law shook his head, his hands gripping Sanji's tightly. Sanji dropped his head against Law's neck, sweaty and shivering, trying to calm his breathing down. The flogger wasn't his favorite toy by any means, but Ace knew him so well that he could bring him right to the edge of his limits before easing off and it always turned him into a shaky mess.

He lifted his head and saw that Law looked worried, which was incredibly sweet and made something in Sanji's stomach flutter. He nuzzled Law's neck again, trying to reassure him that he was okay. .

"Good," Ace set the flogger down, something that made Sanji sigh in relief, but his head snapped up when slicked fingers slid inside him and he rocked back on instinct.

"You're so damn pale," Ace murmured, prepping him quickly as Sanji moaned and felt himself start to harden again. Law grunted, obviously feeling it too since Sanji was still inside of him. "I barely touched you and you're all red," Ace kissed his back and Sanji tried not to react in a way that might be mistaken for pleasure, even though he was feeling pretty damn good at the moment.

He couldn't hold back his moan when Ace pressed his fingers deeper, brushing his prostate, and his hips bucked forward without him meaning them to.

"Well, I'm glad you seem to be enjoying yourselves," 'Ace slid his fingers out and Sanji could hear rustling before a hand landed on his back to ground him and Ace was pushing inside, making his eyes roll back. "Don't fucking come. Either of you," was all Ace said before setting a blistering pace.

Sanji's knees were sliding on the bed, his hips driving deep into Law with every thrust Ace gave, and he let himself drift, focusing only on what he was feeling and using the tight grip of Law's fingers around his to keep him grounded in reality.

Ace's fingers were gripping his hips hard enough to leave bruises, his speed relentless, and Sanji looked at Law to see that his eyes were half-closed, cheeks flushed and hard cock leaking pre-cum onto his stomach.

"Yeah, _fuck,"_ Ace pulled out without warning, making Sanji whine at the sudden loss, and he heard the wet sound of Ace jerking himself off, slick skin on slick skin, before a spurt of hot liquid landed in the small of his back.

"Fuck," he mumbled, or tried to, his arms shaking with the strain of holding the top half of his body upright.

"Beautiful," Ace was slightly breathless and Sanji had to smirk at that because the other man was fairly good at holding his character but even _he_ couldn't be completely unruffled after an orgasm like that. "Now. Get out," he smacked Sanji's still-tender ass and the blond yelped, pulling his hips back as much as he could so his cock slid out of Law.

Ace rolled the condom off, undoing the strap holding one pair of their joined hands to the headboard and pulling their wrists down. "Get each other off. Neither of you comes until the other does, and if you don't come together…" he clicked his tongue and left the threat at that, but it was clear enough.

It was a little awkward, his left hand and Law's right still attached to the headboard while they tried to wrap their opposite hands around both of their cocks despite the ropes still binding their wrists together.

"Good boys," Ace murmured, and Sanji _really_ fucking hoped Law was as close as he himself was because this wasn't going to take long.

Sanji kept his eyes locked on Law's, trying to gauge how much time he had, until Law gave a tiny nod of his head and squeezed the hand still on the headboard.

That was all it took and their rhythm stuttered as they both came, Sanji not bothering to quell his moans this time. Law was still silent, breathing sharply through his nose and bucking up into their combined grip, both of them soaked with sweat now.

"Look at you both," Ace sounded awed, something almost reverent in his tone. "We're going to have a _lot_ of fun together," he added them, menace underlying his words, and Sanji forced himself to look dejected instead of basking in the afterglow of what had been a pretty damn great climax.

The scene ended like that, both of them covered in sweat and cum and still bound together, and when Ace whispered that he had just one more thing he wanted to do before the shoot ended, Sanji could only agree because, if he had to admit it to himself, he didn't want to let go of Law just _quite_ yet.

000

"He's not letting us go."

"Hush," Law had him bundled in his arms, sitting mostly in his lap. Sanji shivered and pressed closer, holding Law as tightly as he dared and hiding a smile against his neck when the other man returned the embrace just as fiercely. It was tight in the cage, yes, but not so tiny that they had to be _this_ close – though, Law didn't seem to mind at all.

"He's not, Law, we're going to be here until we die, and I don't…"

"We won't be," Law growled, his fingers sliding up into Sanji's hair. "We're going to get out of here. Somehow."

Sanji shook his head, pressing his lips to Law's neck and curling against the other man's warm body. "You don't know that. And even if we escape, he can find us again…"

"Sanji," Law said firmly, cupping Sanji's cheeks and forcing the blond to meet his eyes. "We'll get out of here. I promise."

"Okay," Sanji nodded, forcing a tiny smile onto his face when he leaned in to kiss Law. He held it for probably longer than necessary, pulling away and letting their foreheads rest together. "Okay."

The shoot ended like that, with them just staring at each other and pressed close, and as far as Sanji was concerned, it was by far the best one he'd ever done.

000

Law was, thankfully, much more relaxed during the post-shoot interview. Ace had kind of squashed himself between them, conducting it from in front of the camera and being so infectiously bubbly that, this time, Law seemingly couldn't help but loosen up a little.

Sanji had a feeling he was one of those guys who was just inherently awkward around cameras so long as he wasn't playing a character, and indeed as soon as Ace went to turn it off he relaxed noticeably, shoulders slumping.

"Okay?" Ace came back over, seating himself on Law's other side this time instead of directly between them.

"Yes. Processing," Law laughed quietly and leaned against him, half-closing his eyes when Ace's hand came up to stroke through his hair. "Are we finished?"

"Yep," Ace dropped a kiss onto his forehead and waited for Law to move before he stood. "You're good to go, so feel free to get dressed and I'll meet you out by the front desk to make sure you get paid for all your hard work," he chuckled, directing a, "see you out there" to Sanji before leaving the room.

"Well," Sanji cleared his throat, feeling more than a little awkward himself now that they had no obligations to be in the same room any longer. "So…"

"I enjoyed working with you today," Law said the words almost robotically, not meeting Sanji's eyes as he started straight ahead into the room.

"Same," Sanji waited until it became obvious that Law wasn't going to say anything else before deciding to leave, getting dressed in the extra set of clothing he'd brought and heading toward the entrance of the studio.

Part of him was a little disappointed that Law had closed right off again after all of the progress they'd made (or, at least, that he'd _thought_ they'd made) over the course of the day, but in the end Law was just a temporary co-worker and there was nothing that said he had to even _look_ at Sanji once they'd finished filming.

He brushed by Ace, buttoning his coat and pulling a cigarette out of his pocket that he lit as soon as he was free of the building.

The night air was cold but not unpleasant to be out in, and he stood there and smoked until the cigarette was burned almost to the filter before he heard the doors behind him open up.

Ace had an arm around Law's shoulders and said something to him that made the taller man chuckle and shake his head. Sanji tried to tamp down the flare of jealousy that went through him, completely unfounded though it may be, and sauntered over after crushing the cigarette butt under his foot.

"Hey," he came up, noting that Law seemed unable to meet his eyes again. "Y'know you don't have to fucking give me the cold shoulder, right?"

"I do," Law's eyes flicked to him briefly before he averted his gaze once more. "Thank you again," he gave Ace a rather awkward pat on the shoulder, looking almost anxiously toward Sanji once he apparently realized it would be incredibly rude to leave without acknowledging him as well. "Well."

Sanji rolled his eyes, deciding that if Law hated him after this he'd live with it because it wasn't like they ever had to interact after tonight. He took a step forward, setting his hand on Law's shoulder and giving him plenty of time to pull away before he leaned up for a kiss.

One of Law's arms wrapped around his shoulders immediately, tugging him closer, and while Sanji didn't feel the same warmth coming from Law as he had back in the studio, it was better than being ignored.

"My invitation to come to the Baratie still stands," Sanji murmured as he stepped away, and Law gave him a tiny half-smile before raising his hand in a wave and heading off down the street.

Crossing his arms, Sanji watched him until he'd disappeared into the darkness, and when Ace hugged him from behind he slumped back into the other man's embrace.

"I bet he won't stay away long," Ace laughed, but it was forced, dying awkwardly in the evening air. His arms tightened around Sanji, offering whatever comfort he could, and Sanji knew that Ace was thinking the exact same thing he was:

Law wasn't coming back.

 **Notes:**

 **1.** Yes, this fic will be continuing…I've got some ideas of where to go from here, but there will probably be some more plot introduced (though there'll definitely be more BDSM-scenes as well, don't worry ;) )

 **2.** As always, let me know if you're still enjoying the fic, and I'm still so happy that people have been interested in reading it so far!


	5. Chapter 5

**Title:** Control  
 **Author:** kikokus (AoiTsukikage)  
 **Rating:** NC-17  
 **Characters/Pairing:** Law/Sanji, Ace/Sanji, Ace/Law, Ace/Law/Sanji  
 **Chapter:** 5/?  
 **Word Count:** 3184  
 **Summary:** In which Sanji and Ace are models for a BDSM site and Law's the new guy doing his first shoot (Dom!Ace, sub!Sanji-and-Law)

 **Chapter Five**

"What the fuck is _that_ thing?"

"You'd think you'd be used to torture devices working in a place like this," came the reply, although _how_ the other man could sound completely relaxed while his back was damn near bent in half and arched over what looked like a half-circle made of jagged, sliding metal plates was beyond him.

"That looks more intense than normal," Sanji went over to investigate, grimacing at the position the man was holding. He could do it, probably, but they would be the only two in the entire studio that would even be able to manage getting _into_ that far of a back-bend, much less holding it for the duration of a scene.

"It's adjustable," the man still didn't move, though he lifted his head to stare at Sanji down the length of his rather absurd nose. "It starts out flat and you can crank it up until they can't take it anymore," he grins brightly and Sanji guessed that made more sense, even if it still looked uncomfortable as hell. "Everybody else has been afraid to use it since we got it, but…"

"You're not," Sanji noted, trying to keep his face blank as the man literally uncurled his spine until he was standing upright, hands on his hips.

Yeah. Sanji was flexible, but he was pretty sure Kaku was damn near boneless and it still freaked him out sometimes how the other man could move.

"Well, it doesn't do me much good to know how to use it since…" Kaku sighed and headed out of the room, leaving Sanji to follow.

And yeah, Sanji loved working where he did for the most part, but of course the porn industry was built on looks and if somebody didn't fit the mold, it didn't matter how talented they were in other areas.

That was the case with Kaku, who was a fucking brilliant dom and had the uncanny ability to turn from utterly cold and intense to the happiest person Sanji had ever met in his life in less than a second. He knew the limits of the human body possibly better than anyone else at the site (and Sanji knew there was a story there…probably…though he was a little afraid to ask) and yet despite all of that he was mostly stuck helping with set-up for scenes and doing the video editing for the shoots.

"Have you talked to Marco?" Sanji couldn't really see the other man being the type to be so shallow, but Kaku laughed bitterly and shook his head.

"What good is it gonna do me?" he stopped at the door to the editing lab and pushed it open, letting Sanji enter first. "This is gonna sound mighty harsh, but guys like you are the reason guys like me are stuck behind the scenes. Nobody wants to jack off watching some scrawny kid with a honking giant square nose being in every shot," he grunted, and while the words stung a little, Sanji knew what his point was.

He couldn't help the way he looked any more than Kaku could, but swirly eyebrows were somewhat easier to overlook than what Kaku had been born with. Honestly, Sanji had known Kaku for long enough now that he barely noticed the nose and apart from that there was nothing unattractive about him – he had eyelashes that most of Sanji's female friends would kill for and he was slender, certainly, though every inch of his body was toned and sleek - but for people watching on the Internet it probably wouldn't work the same way.

"Anyway, we're not here to bemoan my inability to be on camera, we're here to edit your shoot from last week," Kaku reminded him, hopping onto the chair (and yes, 'onto' was the proper word since he tucked his feet under him so that he was crouched on the seat instead of properly sitting) and opening the program. "I've already ingested the footage and tried to work through the opening interview, but you and Ace didn't exactly give me much to work with as far as the new guy goes."

"Yeah, he wasn't very talkative to start with," Sanji felt his breath catch at the sight of Law on the monitor, even if it was Law fully-clothed and surly as he'd been at the beginning of the day.

"I hear…" Kaku cut off when the door opened and hopped up onto the seat of the chair, peering over the back so just his eyes and nose were visible.

"Hey, sorry I'm late," Ace rushed in, looking frazzled as he tried to smooth his hair down. "Luffy decided he needed to stop for food on the way to class," he said, as if that explained everything…and, since Sanji had known Luffy since they were kids, it certainly did. "Hi, babe," Ace slid an arm around his waist and kissed him and Sanji leaned into it with a smile.

"Oi, no making out in my editing suite," Kaku grumbled, snapping his fingers until they separated.

"Sorry, bud," Ace reached to ruffle his hair, getting a glare from the older man. "Don't take this the wrong way, but _can_ you even make out with somebody?"

Kaku narrowed his eyes and sighed in a rather long-suffering way before nodding.

"Of course I can. I just need to turn my head a little," he looked back to where Ace was grinning at him and held up a hand. "No, I'm not giving you a demonstration," he was smiling, though, and Ace shrugged and leaned on Sanji's shoulder, settling in to watch.

000

"I'd heard that you and the new guy clicked, Sanji, but that's some of the most intense chemistry I've ever seen," Kaku commented after they'd done the first couple of scenes (and yeah, watching himself is kind of a surreal experience and Sanji knows that most subs weren't all that interested in giving their input about the final edit, but he'd always liked that part of it and nobody really seemed to care that he wanted to be involved).

"If I'd have left them alone they would have been going at it in five seconds," Ace supplied helpfully.

"Shut up," Sanji was chewing on an unlit cigarette, a bad habit to be sure but seeing Law again had made him realize that he kind of maybe…just _maybe…_ liked him a little more than he should considering their current relationship.

Or lack of relationship, really.

"It's cute," Kaku assured him, and Sanji knew that coming from him it was an honest observation and not a way to try and embarrass him like Ace would turn it into. "And he's…" he let out a low whistle that made Sanji snicker.

"Yeah. He's something."

"Regardless, despite how he came off in the pre-interview, I think this is going to come together rather well," Kaku went back to the screen as Sanji and Ace told him about them needing to check on Law during the third scene, solving the entire problem in less than a minute by cutting away to a different shot for a few seconds before focusing back on Law (part of Sanji was feeling pretty smug about it and wanting to tell Law that he'd been right about how easy it was to hide things like that, but he'd probably never get the chance).

The rest of the edit went smoothly, and when they got to the end, Kaku spun around in his chair and fixed them both with an intent, wide-eyed stare.

"What?" Ace still had his arm around Sanji's shoulders, leaning on him almost casually.

"You left that as a very obvious 'to-be-continued,'" Kaku pointed out, and it was true: most of the shoots either had definite endings or else they never had solid storylines to begin with, but they'd left this one completely open to be picked up again and Sanji had a rather strong feeling it was because Ace had taken it upon himself to play some sort of kink-fueled matchmaker between him and Law.

"Look, I know you'd never actually try to get with this guy on your own, so I'm just helping," Ace held up a hand and Sanji couldn't really be _mad_ at him for it, even if all it was really serving to do was give him false hope.

"He's not coming back," he said firmly, staring down at the floor until he felt a soft touch on his knee and looked up to see Kaku looking at him with obvious concern.

"The way I see it, we've got two options," Kaku's voice was gentle, his fingers still lightly pressing against Sanji's leg. "I can take out the last scene with the cage and leave it as-is, or I can include it and slap a big ol' cheesy 'to be continued' label on it. Your choice," he murmured.

Sanji glanced up at Ace, who nodded once, and decided this time he'd trust his heart over the feeling in his gut telling him this wasn't going to end well.

"Okay. Do it," he breathed out slowly through his nose, realizing a moment after the words had left his lips that he didn't regret saying them in the least.

"To be continued?" Kaku raised an eyebrow, a grin hovering about his lips, and Sanji nodded.

"Yeah. To be continued."

Or, he thought, at least he really fucking hoped it would be.

000

They invited Kaku to get coffee afterward but the other man declined with an explanation of, "I'm supposed to edit the shoot Kalifa did last week too," (Kalifa was one of the female doms and while she was fucking sexy as hell, she was also fucking terrifying and Sanji knew he'd turn into a mess if he ever worked with her) so they promised to see him later.

"Are you sure you don't want me to talk to Marco?" Sanji had asked before leaving and Kaku shrugged, looking back at him.

"Do it if you want, but we both know what the answer will be," had been his reply…which Sanji was going to take as 'not a no', so he made a note to bring it up to Marco the next time he saw the man.

They did end up getting coffee, heading in the direction of Sanji's condo before Ace stopped and looked behind him.

"I'll come over later, okay? I've got some…things to do first," he looked determined and Sanji blinked at him, tilting his head to the side.

"What sort of things?" he raised a curled eyebrow, knowing that Ace would tell him sooner or later.

"I'm gonna talk to Marco," he stood up to his full height and Sanji tried to stifle a laugh at how intense the look in his dark eyes was at that moment. "I'll talk to him about Kaku too, since I'm there, but I…"

"Why now?" Sanji curled his hands around his coffee cup, a little surprised since only a few days ago Ace had rather harshly shut down even the idea of potentially asking Marco out. "What changed?"

"I realized I was being the world's biggest hypocrite pushing you about Law if I couldn't even find the courage to ask Marco on a date," he replied, and while Sanji could see the logic in that, he was still proud of Ace for finally reaching a decision. "I'm probably making a huge mistake, but…"

"He'd have to be a fucking idiot to turn you down, Ace," Sanji was all but certain of that, and he walked forward and leaned in to kiss Ace's cheek. "Go get him. I'll be expecting a full report after," he added and Ace grinned, looking much more at ease now.

"I'll come over as soon as I'm done," he promised, waving at Sanji before all but sprinting down the sidewalk like a giddy child. It was a good look on him, Sanji thought, and Marco wasn't the type of guy to ever let somebody belittle themselves so really, he was perfect for Ace.

Sanji turned around and walked back in the direction of his condo, hoping that Ace would accept leftover pasta as a celebratory dinner because he had no doubt that's what it would be.

000

The door opened a couple of hours later and Sanji raced out into the kitchen, heading to get dinner started before he actually talked to Ace.

Slipping the pasta into the pre-heated oven, he looked around in surprise when instead of Ace bouncing into the kitchen he heard the door to his bedroom shut. The sudden, sinking feeling in his chest made him fear the worst, and one look into the bedroom confirmed his worries when he saw that Ace was trying to burrow under the blankets, face smooshed into a pillow.

"Ace…"

"I'm not hungry," Ace mumbled, which pretty much answered all of Sanji's questions because for Ace to miss a meal, something had to be _really_ wrong.

"What happened?" Sanji sat down beside him, resting a hand on his shoulder and stroking it slowly down his arm. "Talk to me."

"He said no," Ace replied, mostly into the pillow, but Sanji still heard and his heart sank even farther.

"Ace…I'm so fucking sorry, I should never have pushed you…"

"It's not your fault," Ace finally pulled his head out of the pillow, his dark hair messy and falling into his eyes as he looked at Sanji. "I'm an idiot for even thinking a guy like him would want to date me in the first place."

"What did he say?" Sanji still couldn't fathom Marco being cruel, because it didn't seem to be in the other man's nature, but Ace was obviously pretty upset about what had happened.

"That…he couldn't date me because it would be like showing favoritism and other employees would think I was getting more work or paid more because I was dating the boss," he replied with a sigh. "I know it's not a total rejection, but maybe he was just letting me down easy…"

Sanji stroked his fingers gently through Ace's hair, knowing that for somebody with as little self-esteem as Ace seemed to have it would probably feel crushing, but the truth was…he could see where Marco was coming from.

It sucked, for Ace especially, but he still had no doubt that in a different situation Marco would have said 'yes' immediately and that was what Ace had to focus on now.

"He wasn't," Sanji said firmly, since that was one thing he was certain of. "Trust me, Ace, he likes you. And you never know, maybe he'll change his mind about dating an employee one day," he added, keeping his fingers moving slowly and feeling Ace finally relax under the soft touches.

They were both quiet for a while then, Sanji not sure if he should say anything else and Ace looking almost half-asleep, at least until he shook himself awake and looked up at Sanji. "Hey. D'you ever think we should make one of those pact-things?"

"What pact-things?"

"You know, when friends do the…like, if neither of us find anybody by the time we're thirty, we marry each other?" he asked, rolling onto his back and latching onto Sanji's hand.

Sanji's first response was to laugh, but after what Ace had just gone through, he knew the other man was serious and he wasn't going to make fun of that.

"That's a long way away, Ace. We're going to find people by then," he smiled, although Ace didn't look convinced in the slightest.

"Yeah, but what if we _don't?"_ he pressed.

"Then I'll marry you," Sanji promised, and he _did_ mean it. He and Ace weren't the worst match in the world by any means and he had no doubt they could make it work, but he also knew that there were…other people out there that were even more suited to them, and one day they'd find them.

Hell, he was pretty sure Ace already _had,_ but maybe the time wasn't quite right yet.

"Good," Ace lifted Sanji's hand to his lips and kissed the back of it, the look on his face a lot lighter now. "So. You said something about dinner?" he looked hopeful and Sanji had to laugh because even heartbreak couldn't keep Ace's appetite at bay for long.

"Yeah. Come on, then," he pulled Ace out of bed and watched as the other man raced to the kitchen, his good spirits seemingly restored.

That was a for the best, Sanji thought as he went to check if the pasta was heated through yet, because Ace was the kind of guy who didn't deserve to be anything less than blissfully happy…and if Sanji could do anything to help him get there, even if it was offering to marry him almost ten years down the road, he would.

000

However, just because Ace had gotten rejected (temporarily, as Sanji kept reminding him, but he brushed that fact off), that didn't mean he'd stopped pestering Sanji about Law, though the younger man had firmly let go of the idea that any of Law's apparent affection toward him during the shoot had come from an honest place.

It had been a week, after all, and while Sanji knew their shoot would go live on the site tonight, he was almost dreading the reactions because no doubt people would assume there would be a continuation and that was looking less and less likely as the days went by.

That was why, mere hours before Sanji planned on going home from the work and watching it (just to see the finished product, of course. Nothing to do with staring at Law. Nope), it gave him such a shock when he stepped out of the Baratie for a smoke break and saw a man with a very familiar pair of golden eyes staring at him from across the alley.

Law had a hood pulled up over his hair and a backpack slung over his shoulder, but it was unmistakeably him.

"Hey," he grinned, feeling giddy at just the _sight_ of Law and fucking hell that was embarrassing. "Finally decided to take me up on my cooking offer?" he took a step forward, though his temporary mood boost vanished when Law immediately backed away. "Law?"

Law's upper lip curled in a sneer that made him look far too sinister for the man Sanji knew he was – or, he reminded himself harshly, the man he _thought_ he knew he was, since Law could have very easily been acting the entire time he was both on- and off-camera.

Sanji didn't believe it…didn't _want_ to believe it…but it was something he had to consider anyway.

The older man didn't say a word as he narrowed his eyes and turned smartly around, disappearing beyond the corner of the alley, and by the time Sanji realized what was happening and had sprung after him with a 'Law, wait!', clearing the alley and looking in every possible direction to figure out which way he'd gone, he had disappeared without a trace.

 **Notes:**

 **1.** So, since this is apparently becoming a longer fic there obviously had to be some semblance of an actual plot emerging…that being said, I hope this chapter was okay despite the lack of smut or any sort of bdsm material, since I know that's what this fic is advertised as!

 **2.** There will be more of that, though, as we go on, but as always please feel free to leave a review or comment, and I'm still amazed at the positive reception this fic has received so thank you all for that :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Title:** Control  
 **Author:** kikokus (AoiTsukikage)  
 **Rating:** NC-17  
 **Characters/Pairing:** Law/Sanji, Ace/Sanji, Ace/Law, Ace/Law/Sanji  
 **Chapter:** 6/?  
 **Word Count:** 3577  
 **Summary:** In which Sanji and Ace are models for a BDSM site and Law's the new guy doing his first shoot (Dom!Ace, sub!Sanji-and-Law)

 **Chapter Six**

"So when do we get to meet this mystery man?"

"You don't," Sanji set the plates he was carrying down, spinning the tray on his fingertips and plopping down into an empty chair. It wasn't technically time for his break, but the shitty old geezer could personally come yell at him if he needed him, he figured. "He's hardly a mystery, either, since you've already seen all of him," he stuck an unlit cigarette in his mouth and chewed on the end of it.

Sometimes he really wished his friends didn't know what his second job was, but it was better than keeping secrets…even though usually it meant he had to put up with a _lot_ of teasing because of it. And yeah, knowing that most of them watched him…being tied up and tortured and forced to come…it was kind of inherently awkward, but so far nobody had judged him for it so he supposed he was okay with his choice to tell them.

"Just because I've seen him naked doesn't mean I know what he's really like," Nami leaned across the table and winked at him. "You and him had some seriously intense chemistry, Sanji."

"So everybody tells me," Sanji grunted, because talking about Law was still kind of a sore spot. He hadn't seen or heard from him since that day outside the restaurant, and while he mostly just wanted to forget about him and move on, nobody else seemed to be aware of that and were seemingly mentioning him at every fucking opportunity.

"Look, the guy's a runner," Ace spoke up and Sanji gave him a grateful look. "We get it a lot. They think they'll like porn or that it's an easy way to make five-hundred bucks for a day's work and at the end decide it's not for them."

"Still," Nami sighed. "I've never seen you…have that sort of connection. With _anybody,"_ she stressed, and Sanji blushed.

Yeah, having the girl he'd been doting on for years tell him point-blank that she only liked girls had been a blow to his pride, but he wasn't sure what was worse: knowing he had no chance, or knowing that she was apparently watching all of his shoots and trying to gauge how much 'chemistry' he had with his scene partners.

Maybe the second, because at least he could accept the first, but there was probably no stopping her with this sort of thing.

"You guys did look like you liked each other," Luffy put in, the words barely audible as he spoke them through a rather large mouthful of food, but Sanji nearly choked on his own saliva because he'd never expected _Luffy_ to have watched his shoots.

In fact…

"Ace, _please_ tell me you're not showing your brother porn that you star in," he looked toward the older man a little fearfully but Ace rolled his eyes and he felt instantly relieved.

" _No,_ babe," he promised. "I just showed him the parts with the two of you to see what he thought, and hell, if _Luffy_ thinks people have sexual chemistry, you know it's obvious," he shrugged and Sanji couldn't really _disagree_ with him, though he did have to lean across the table and yank Ace's plate out of the way when the other man fell-asleep mid-bite and would have slumped into his food otherwise.

"Did _all_ of you watch it?" Sanji asked then, glancing around, and from the way Usopp looked at the ceiling and Zoro pointedly didn't meet his eyes he assumed that was a 'yes' and dropped his head into his hands.

Just because all of his friends knew about it didn't mean he expected them to _watch_ it, after all, and especially the guys he figured wouldn't have any interest, but apparently that wasn't true.

He knew who was to blame, of course, but since Ace was currently snoring into the tabletop he couldn't even berate him for it, so he sighed and settled for glaring at the table in general.

"Look, Cook, I might not like you half the time, but that doesn't mean I want you to be unhappy," Zoro was the first one who spoke, but it sounded like the words cost him a great effort to get out.

"Yeah. Ace said that this guy and you…there was something special there. And he was right," Usopp added, sounding so earnest that Sanji couldn't stay mad at him.

"It doesn't matter," he eventually said. "I invited him to the restaurant, and when he showed up all he did was look at me like I was scum and run off, so that doesn't exactly tell me he likes me."

"I don't believe it," Nami slammed her palm down on the table hard enough that it woke Ace up, and Luffy had to catch his chair before he overbalanced and ended up on the floor from pitching backward. "Nobody's that good of an actor, Sanji-kun," she sounded certain. "He's into you. Maybe he's scared, for some reason, but he _does_ like you."

"Sure, Nami-san," he gave her a tiny smile and hoped that would end the conversation, because as much as he was trying to avoid thinking or talking about Law, somehow it always came back to him.

"Anyway," Zoro cleared his throat and Sanji glanced at him again. "More than noticing you two making eyes at each other, do you have any idea how much _noise_ you make, Cook?" he was smirking and Sanji blushed before regaining his composure.

"At least I'm _enjoying_ myself, Marimo," he countered, half-standing as Zoro kept giving him the biggest shit-eating grin he could muster, but before he could retaliate Zeff came by, snagged him by the back of his apron, and all but dragged him to the kitchen with a, "I don't pay you to get into fights, Eggplant."

"We'll see you later, Sanji!" Luffy waved at him before the swinging kitchen doors blocked them from view, and Sanji spent the afternoon wondering how long the ghost of Law would haunt him.

Because, as far as he was concerned, it had already been far too long.

000

"Have you really not watched it yet?"

"I was _in_ it, Ace," he looked over his shoulder from his seat at the desk, mouse hovering above the preview picture for the shoot the way he'd done every day since the damn thing had gone up. "And I helped edit it. I don't need to watch it."

"Which explains why you spend fifteen minutes every day jut staring at the page," Ace moved over, grabbing the mouse and scrolling down to the comments. "Well, you guys are popular, anyway."

"That's what I was afraid of," Sanji sighed, because he knew that if they made it look like there was more to this 'story' people would likely be clamoring for it. Not because of him, since he's hardly that vain, but because Law was so fucking gorgeous people would want to see more of him.

And yeah, Sanji could at least feel a _little_ good about the fact that he'd gotten to work with Law out of all the models at the site, because he was betting after looking at this Law would have every single person who worked there wanting to do a shoot with him.

He heard Ace make a wounded noise in his throat that was quickly cut off and looked up, narrowing his eyes at the screen until he found what had upset the older man.

For the most part, comments about the models themselves were fairly positive, but users didn't seem to extend that same courtesy toward the doms and sometimes it seemed like there was no pleasing them.

They criticized _everything:_ from the set-up of the shoot to the physical appearance of the dom to their age to how 'convincing' they were, and Ace was somebody who thought little enough of himself as it was that Sanji knew things like this hit him hard.

"Fuck him, baby," he said with a growl, reaching up to rub Ace's back and feeling how tense the other man had become.

He couldn't blame him, since the comment was brutal even by what he was used to seeing, basically amounting to Ace being 'too young' to know how to 'properly handle a man' and that 'he looks like he needs somebody to bend him over and ream his ass, then maybe he'd know what a good fuck feels like because he doesn't know how to give one' (and Sanji took personal offense to the last part, thank you very much, since as far as he was concerned Ace was a rather perfect lover).

Yeah, Ace was young, but he was damn good at what he did and if could get somebody as closed-off and stubborn as Law to submit to him and enjoy himself that said more than some anonymous asshole on the Internet ever could.

Ace probably wouldn't see it that way, but Sanji knew in his heart that it was the truth.

He kept rubbing Ace's back as he scrolled through the rest of the comments, pausing when he came to one with what looked like a tiny blue flame beside the name because he'd never seen that before, but his eyes widened while he read and a slow grin started to spread across his lips.

"Ace," he patted the other man's shoulder.

"What?" Ace sounded defeated and Sanji tapped the screen.

"Read that one."

Ace narrowed his eyes and leaned closer. " 'In response to a comment further down the thread, I would like to remind all users that derogatory remarks toward any of our employees will result in a warning and subsequent offenses in a site-wide ban and/or the termination of your account. If we were displeased with the performances given by _any_ of our models, we would not ask them to keep returning and working with us. Suggestions for future shoots are welcomed, but personal attacks are unacceptable and will not be tolerated', signed Admin_Marco…" Ace trailed off.

"I've never seen him come down on somebody like that," Sanji murmured, glancing up at Ace with a grin.

"It doesn't mean anything…"

"Ace. He's personally defending you and threatening to _ban_ somebody from a site they paid for if they say anything negative again…" he started, though Ace shook his head.

"He was right, though," he eventually said with a sigh. "Okay, maybe he likes me…"

"He definitely likes you."

"But can you imagine…if we were dating and word got out? Then for sure people would think I only had a job because of that and not because I was any good at it. Things like this would get worse, and banning paid subscriptions is only going to cause him trouble in the end," he realized, something haunted in his expression. "He was trying to protect me."

Sanji leans against him, nuzzling into his shirt and heaving a sigh. Ace was right, of course, but it didn't really help him or Marco in the end, especially if they both liked each other…which, by this point, Sanji was certain they did.

"He's a good guy, Ace," he murmured and Ace nodded, a wistful smile on his face.

"Maybe one day…" he sighed, leaning down to drop a kiss on Sanji's forehead. "Well, at least I've got people looking out for me," he decided, looking marginally happier, and Sanji knew Marco had managed to make him feel at least a little better about himself even if he didn't realize it yet.

"Always," Sanji promised him, going back to staring at the preview.

And maybe one day he'd stop being such a fucking coward and actually watch the thing.

000

Sanji could hear the laughter from halfway down the hall, and it only got louder the closer he came to the edit suite. By the time he opened the door and slipped inside it had subsided a bit, but Ace was obviously still trying to hold it together when he looked over his shoulder and gave Sanji a wave.

"Hey!" he snickered. "Glad you came!"

"You want to explain why you sent me a random text just telling me to show up here?" Sanji wasn't sure why whatever it was couldn't have waited until later, since Ace seemed to spend about 95% of his time at Sanji's place anyway, but multiple inquiring texts had gotten no reply so the blond had eventually decided the only way he'd find out what was going on was if he actually went to the studio.

"In a second," Ace promised, looking back at the screen. "First, though, you have _got_ to hear this guy I shot with last week..."

"I'm turning the volume down," Kaku said before he pressed play, and Sanji almost jumped because the guy on-screen let out a sound that he'd only heard howler monkeys make on nature documentaries.

Ace burst out laughing again and Kaku clapped a hand over his mouth to stifle his own chuckles as Sanji stared at the screen. "Was he like that the _whole time?"_

"Yeah," Ace finally managed to get himself under control and took a deep breath. "I mean, he's gorgeous…"

Sanji looked at the video again, seeing that he _was_ if you could get past that noise, but he had a feeling that wasn't going to be easy.

"But he's obviously one of those guys that thinks over-acting and _trying_ to be sexy is going to make the shoot better…"

"If that's what he think is sexy, I'm a little frightened," Kaku mentioned dryly and Sanji coughed to cover how close he was to laughing himself. "I still don't know how you managed to finish the shoot with a straight face," he directed this toward Ace, who shrugged and sat down in the chair beside Kaku's.

"Honestly? I have no idea. It wasn't easy, though," he glanced at Sanji and patted his lap, and the blond sighed but eventually complied. "That's one of the reasons you're so great at this, though, because all of your reactions are natural and you're not trying to play it up," he added and Sanji pursed his lips, nodding, even though that much at least was true.

Yes, he was loud, but that was…just how he was, and he knew that normally that was a major plus for the type of site they were at regardless.

"I'm going to have to cut the volume on him or else it's going to blow out peoples' speakers," Kaku noted, which set Ace off again, and Sanji noticed that the next time Kaku started playing the file he had the volume down almost to nothing. "Really, Sanji, you're a blessing; editing your shoots is a breeze compared t' some of the fancy tricks I have to pull with guys like this." Even so, he quickly finished up the scene and cleared his throat, looking to Ace again. "Well? Should we end the suspense?"

"Yeah," Ace opened his mouth to reply when there was a knock on the door and Marco stuck his head in, a lazy smile spreading across his lips when he saw Ace.

"Hey. I need to talk to you about something," he leaned against the door, looking completely unconcerned. Sanji got off of Ace's lap so the other man could stand, backing out of the way.

"Something…?" Ace swallowed, shoving his hands into his pockets and obviously trying to look at ease, though Sanji could tell he wasn't.

"Not work-related," Marco glanced toward Sanji and Kaku before shrugging, obviously deciding it was fine for them to know, and when he turned and left Ace just stood there frozen.

" _Ace,"_ Sanji hissed, nudging the other man with his elbow.

"Ah…yeah," Ace blinked, taking a step toward the door. "Should I…"

"Go, lad," Kaku chuckles, waving a hand idly. "I'll explain everything to Sanji."

"Okay," Ace broke out into his normal brilliant smile before dashing from the room and Sanji sighed and shook his head, because of course Ace would still doubt Marco's intentions even when the other man had made it fairly clear this wasn't some sort of employee meeting.

"I saw Marco's comments on your shoot," Kaku mentioned as Sanji sat down beside him. "I figured it was only a matter of time."

"Well, whatever Marco tells him, Ace is still going to stress about it because he's like that," Sanji chuckled a little, although he did hope for Ace's sake that this time it would be positive news for the other man. "So, what's up?"

"Ah! Yes," Kaku looked at him. "Well, you know that new employees automatically get an account with the site…"

"Yeah. Go on," Sanji narrowed his eyes, really not sure where this was going.

"Right. Well, because we give them their username and pay for it, it's easy to track their activity. And looking at Law's account, he's already watched the video of your shoot…something I've noticed that _you_ haven't even done yet," he said in a voice that was much too smug and Sanji rolled his eyes.

"So he watched one video. What does that have to do with…"

"Oh, he's watched a _lot_ of them, actually!" Kaku continued brightly, though Sanji failed to share his enthusiasm.

"Am I supposed to be excited that he's watching other guys fuck?" Sanji grumbled, sounding a lot more bitter than he'd intended.

"That's the thing, though," Kaku clicked his tongue and sat back in the chair, crossing his arms. "All of the ones he's watched have had a…common thread."

He stopped then and Sanji kept staring at him, waiting for him to continue. " _And…?"_

"And it's _you_ , lad," Kaku looked at him rather intently. "He's only watched shoots where you're one of the performers."

Sanji felt his stomach do a weird swoopy-thing and opened his mouth to say something, though all he really succeeded in doing was squeaking. "S-so you think…"

"He likes you," Kaku shrugged. "There's no other way to look at this."

"Then why did he fucking sprint away from me that day at the restaurant like I was the last person he wanted to see?" Sanji was still trying to figure that one out, really, because the look on Law's face had been downright sinister and he never wanted to see that directed at him again.

"Maybe he wasn't expecting t' see you standing outside and you scared away any nerve he'd worked up," Kaku mused. "Regardless, he's active almost every day, making his way through your catalogue."

"Fuck," Sanji whispered, still trying to process everything. Yeah, maybe Law liked him, but if the only way he was doing anything about it was to watch videos, that didn't exactly bode well for any sort of future relationship potential. "So…you didn't bring me in here _just_ to tell me that, I hope?"

"Ace and I have come up with a plan to get him back here," Kaku grinned at him, though Sanji still didn't know where this was going.

"He's not coming back," Sanji said firmly, since that was one thing he _was_ pretty fucking sure of.

"Maybe he will if you ask him to," Kaku was staring at him rather seriously now and Sanji knew he wasn't joking.

"I'm listening."

"Since we left the…potential to turn your shoot into a series of sorts, what if Law escaped somehow?" he started. "It leaves you at Ace's mercy, but of course you've already proven that you're stubborn as hell, so Ace enlists the help of a…friend…who's not nearly so merciful to…convince you to give up his location…or, failing that, beg him to come back and save you," his voice was low and Sanji felt himself shiver involuntarily because _fucking hell_ , this could actually work.

"Wait…" he paused, because while he didn't _exclusively_ work with Ace, he preferred it since he trusted Ace completely. "A friend?"

"Mm," Kaku nodded and looked away, blushing a little now as he cleared his throat. "Marco…may have agreed to let me do an edging shoot."

Sanji nodded, still not sure what he meant by that. He supposed it made sense, because unlike the one he'd done with Law where Ace was actively involved to the point of being just as much of the focus as the subs, edging shoots were purely about the models. The doms didn't take off any clothing and there wasn't any actual sex involved, it was just…well…edging using different devices until the sub finally got to come at the end.

If Marco had been worried about Kaku getting heat from commenters because of how he looked, letting him control a scene where he wasn't really the focus was probably the safest option.

Sanji kept blinking at him until suddenly it clicked. "You're this hypothetical friend, right?" he asked, getting a tiny nod in return, and Sanji didn't even hesitate after that. "Yeah. Yes. Let's fucking do this."

"Are you sure?" Kaku looked surprised that he'd agreed so quickly, his normally wide eyes even wider. "I mean, I know you don't work with that many doms, so if…"

"Kaku, I know how good you are," he shrugged. "And we've known each other for…fuck… _years_ , by this point, so I trust you way more than anybody else here besides Ace," he promised, reaching to grab the other man's hand.

"You're certain."

" _Yes,"_ Sanji chuckled. "I am."

"Well, then!" Kaku squeezed his hand back and grinned. "Let's go and get your man back."

 **Notes:**

 **1.** Yeah, more plot and not much action, but it was necessary to set up future events!

 **2.** Thank you all again for the amount of support this fic has received, and I hope everyone is still enjoying this :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Title:** Control  
 **Author:** kikokus (AoiTsukikage)  
 **Rating:** NC-17  
 **Characters/Pairing:** Ace/Law/Sanji in all combinations, side Marco/Ace, Sanji/others  
 **Chapter:** 7/?  
 **Word Count:** 3269  
 **Summary:** In which Sanji and Ace are models for a BDSM site and Law's the new guy doing his first shoot (Dom!Ace, sub!Sanji-and-Law)

 **Chapter Seven**

"I look ridiculous."

"You look _hot,"_ Ace countered, causing Sanji to look up, and he had to admit that Ace was right.

Kaku himself was looking rather uncomfortable, but since Sanji was used to seeing him wandering around in a baggy tracksuit with a baseball capped plonked over his hair, he could see why that might be.

"I'm a firm believer that the word 'hot' will never be applied to me in terms of anything other than temperature," Kaku replied, grumbling as he walked across the floor. "I'm going to sit Kalifa down and give her a stern talking-to for saddling me with these clothes."

And that explained it, Sanji thought with a grin, because from what he'd seen Kalifa was a lot more daring with her clothing choices than Kaku, even outside of doing scenes.

"Sanji, he looks hot, right?" Ace bounded over, leaning his head on Sanji's shoulder like some sort of over-eager puppy, and Sanji nodded.

"You do."

"Stop," Kaku was blushing a little, like he didn't quite know how to handle the compliment, but Sanji let his eyes rove over the other man's body and thought that if they were trying to get people watching to focus on something other than his nose, Kalifa had done a damn good job.

He was wearing a pair of slate-grey slim-fitting jeans that showed off his incredibly long legs and clung to his ass rather nicely, and a short-sleeved black button-down shirt that emphasized his broad shoulders and trim waist. His reddish-gold hair was, for once, not covered up but rather artfully tousled, and Sanji couldn't help but wonder why he wore such unflattering clothes on a regular basis when he was hiding a body like that under them.

Ace was similarly dressed in skinny jeans, though he was wearing a leather biker jacket over a black t-shirt, and Sanji felt rather underdressed considering all he was clad in was an undershirt and boxers. Intentionally, of course, but still.

"So. Shall we get things rolling?" Kaku was trying to change the subject and Ace walked over to him now, sliding an arm around his waist. Kaku didn't look any more comfortable at the touch, but eventually he relaxed into it and his posture became a little more casual. "Right. I've seen enough footage to know that both of you are cuddlers."

"Yeah," Ace grinned. "So get used to it," he kissed the other man's cheek before rushing away to talk to the cameramen, and Kaku gave Sanji a rather unreadable look as the blond tried to stifle a laugh.

Ace, if it was possible, was even more excitable than usual lately, and Sanji was betting it all stemmed from the conversation he'd had with Marco that day. Apparently they had both decided, especially after the comments left on Sanji and Law's shoot, that it would be better if their relationship remained professional…at least, in the eyes of everybody else, though Ace had told Sanji with a shit-eating grin that him going to Marco's office from now on definitely wouldn't be all work-related.

It was casual, by all accounts, though Sanji knew they both liked each other enough that one day it would be more serious than that. The day that happened would definitely be bittersweet, because Sanji would miss having Ace as a sometimes-lover as well as a friend, but he was happy for the other man more than anything and he'd never jeopardize their relationship because he was feeling lonely.

"He's a handful, isn't he?" Kaku asked with a wry chuckle as Ace rushed from crew-member to crew-member, chatting with each of them as if he'd known them forever.

"Always has been," Sanji replied, looking over at the older man. "Hey, if you're not cool with him being touchy, just tell him. He'll respect it," he promised, but Kaku merely shrugged

"It doesn't bother me, particularly; I'm just not used to it. I didn't grow up with a lot of affection," he gave a wry smile and Sanji immediately felt bad.

"If you'd rather we didn't touch you…"

"Lad," Kaku gave a long-suffering sigh and wrapped his arms around Sanji's waist, leaning his chin over the blond's shoulder. "It's fine. We're going to be getting mighty close in a few minutes anyway," he chuckled and Sanji leaned back against him, smirking, because he couldn't deny that.

Only a few seconds went by before Ace rushed back over, letting them know they were ready to get started, and Sanji tried to get himself back into the mind-set for the scene without worrying too much about whether it really _would_ be enough to get Law back.

It would work, he told himself firmly as he was directed to stand over a mark on the floor.

It had to.

000

"Are you ready to talk now?"

"I've got nothing to say to you fuckers," Sanji growled, struggling against the ropes binding his wrists. His his wrists bound together over his head and attached to a hook on the ceiling while his ankles were locked into a spreader bar, keeping his legs wide.

"I told you he was stubborn," Ace slid a hand up his body, pulling his shirt up. "It's cute how much they want to protect each other, though I'm not sure why this one's still so keen on it since his so-called friend just left him here," he slapped Sanji's cheek lightly.

"He's only human. He'll break," came another voice and Sanji froze, his breath catching as he stared into the darkness. He'd never heard that tone from Kaku before, utterly cold and sinister, and when the other man came into view he gulped without meaning to.

"Don't break him too much," Ace snickered, rubbing Sanji's stomach under the shirt. "I still want to play with him, you know."

"I can break his spirit without breaking his mind," Kaku replied simply, stepping closer and narrowing his eyes at Sanji. "He's a pretty thing, isn't he? I can see why you'd want to keep him."

"Fuck off," Sanji snarled, his breath catching when Kaku caught his jaw in a grip so firm he could barely move his head.

"You let him mouth off like this to you?" Kaku looked at Ace, who shrugged. "You're too soft, Ace," he shook his head, going to pick up a gag and coming back over. He gripped Sanji's hair and pulled his head back, waiting for him to open his mouth to gasp before shoving the ring in and fastening it tightly behind Sanji's head.. The ring was bigger than what Sanji was used to and he worked his jaw around it a little, breathing harshly.

"Hey, don't…" Ace started, but Kaku fixed him with a glare.

"You brought him here for me to break, Ace," the other man said, tracing his finger under Ace's chin and leaning in close. "Let me do my job, hmm?"

"Okay," Ace took a step back and Kaku smirked, turning his gaze back on Sanji. "We've got two options here, the way I see it," he clamped an arm around Sanji's waist, leaning his chin on the blond's shoulder and murmuring just loud enough for the camera to hear. "Either you tell us where he's hiding, or we'll _make_ you tell us where he's hiding. The end result's the same, but you can choose to make this easy or hard on yourself."

Sanji growled as best as he could with the gag, causing Kaku to click his tongue and pull back.

"Have it your way, kid. But trust me, if you thought Ace here was hard on you, you're about to _wish_ he was in control," Kaku picked up a switchblade from the table, flipping it in the air and catching it expertly by the handle.

He pulled Sanji's shirt away from his body, slicing it up the middle in one clean stroke and letting it hang in tatters.

"Anytime you're ready to talk, give me a sign…because if you don't, I'll assume you're enjoying this," he cupped Sanji through his underwear before cutting through those as well, ripping them away and leaving him exposed.

Sanji let out a whine, trying to shift away from his touch, but he couldn't even move and Kaku chuckled darkly. "Oh, no. You want this to stop, you tell me where your friend is," he grabbed Sanji's jaw again, forcing their eyes to meet.

The blond just glared at him, not making any more noise, so Kaku shrugged.

"Have it your way," he bent to unlock one of Sanji's ankles from the bar, catching the other man's foot as soon as he tried to kick out (and holy _shit,_ Kaku was fast, since Sanji wasn't holding back and he didn't even have to _look_ to block the kick). "You really don't want t' make this easy, do you?" he chuckled, gripping Sanji's ankle while he straightened up.

He stretched Sanji's leg up, holding it almost parallel to his body and pressing back a bit until Sanji gasped at the pull, and fuck, he should have expected this.

Kaku was probably the only person he'd ever met that was at least as flexible (or more, really) as he was, so of course he'd be able to exploit that in ways nobody else could since he _knew_ what Sanji's body could handle.

"You're doing this to yourself, you know," Kaku mentioned idly as he drew a length of rope from his pocket, winding it around Sanji's ankle a number of times. "Ace, would you mind…" he glanced up at the ceiling and Ace moved to lower what looked like a large hoop fastened on the end of a chain enough that Kaku could tie the extra rope off around the ring.

Ace cranked it back up a little then, enough that Sanji had to stand on the tips of his toes to keep his free foot on the ground, and it was incredibly off-putting to be balanced so precariously like that even though with both his ankle and his wrists attached to bars that were hooked into the ceiling there was no way he could fall.

Kaku moved back over to the table, picking up a vibrator and a bottle of lube before returning. He walked behind Sanji so the blond couldn't see him, causing Sanji to gasp when an arm clamped around his waist.

"Last chance," he murmured, his fingers wrapping around Sanji's cock and expertly stroking him to hardness. "Tell me where he is and this all stops."

Sanji tried to say something, though all attempting to speak really did was push built-up saliva past the ring holding his jaw wide, causing it to drip off his chin and onto his chest.

"You're a dirty boy, huh?" Kaku hummed, and Sanji could feel slick fingers running teasingly over the soft skin of his inner thighs, almost caressing. "You want this, don't you?" he rubbed his finger over Sanji's entrance, barely pressing hard enough to slip inside of him, and Sanji whimpered involuntarily. "I'm jealous, Ace," Kaku raised his voice a little. "You get to play with him all the time."

Ace sauntered over, fingers skimming up through the streaks of wetness on Sanji's skin to slip into his mouth and press against his tongue. "He claims to hate it, but he's always so eager," Ace hummed, removing his fingers momentarily as he reached down to swipe a bead of pre-cum from the head of Sanji's cock. He lifted his hand again, fingers pushing into Sanji's mouth and forcing the blond to taste himself as he moaned rather wantonly.

"It'd be a shame to lose him," Kaku sighed in what sounded like passable regret as his own fingers slid inside of Sanji's willing body.

"I'm not planning on losing him," Ace smirked, finally pulling his fingers from Sanji's mouth, running them down his neck and chest to leave more trails of saliva on his skin. "But I want both of them."

"Mm, you're a greedy bastard, ain't'cha?" Kaku pressed his fingers a little deeper and Sanji groaned loudly, his body swaying a little bit as he tried to keep his toes touching the floor. "Y' have to let me borrow 'em sometimes," he added, earning another laugh from Ace.

"I'll tell you what, if you can get any sort of information out of him that'll lead us to his friend, you've got a deal," Ace moved back again and Kaku clamped his free arm around Sanji's waist, holding him steady.

"Oh, I'll get you information," Kaku gave a throaty laugh, curling his fingers in and upward and making Sanji yelp as they hit his prostate. He kept them there, pressing just enough for Sanji to constantly feel it, and flicked on the vibrator as he held it to rest just under the head of his cock.

"Nn!" Sanji let out a rather loud moan, trying to cant his hips forward to feel more of the vibrator, but Kaku's grip was solid and he couldn't even more.

"So needy," Kaku sounded almost condescending. "You love this, don't you?"

"Mm!" Sanji said, hoping it sounded like a denial when that was the farthest thing from the truth, but he narrowed his eyes and tried to glare across the room.

"The longer you hold out, the harder this is gonna get," Kaku hissed into his ear, adding a third finger and curling them so the pressure was relentless as he turned the vibrator up.

Sanji moaned again, not even bothering to hide how overwhelmed he was this time. It felt like every pleasure sensor in his body was overloading at once and he had to fight to hold off his orgasm.

"And the harder it'll be for him, once we catch him again," Ace added, grabbing Sanji's chin and forcing the blond to meet his eyes. "One way or another, we _will_ find him. If you help us, I _might_ be more inclined to be merciful once we do, but if you refuse and make our lives harder…well, there's no telling what will happen to him…" he looked mildly sad and Sanji tried to shake his head, eyes wide as he let out a garbled whine.

He didn't say anything else, knowing that it wouldn't be that easy regardless, but his eyes nearly rolled back in his head when Kaku moved the vibrator to its highest setting, his hips trying to buck forward onto it.

Fuck. He was so _close,_ he just needed…

"I guess we're not being persuasive enough, Ace," Kaku pulled his fingers out and moved the vibrator away at the same time, Sanji whimpering at the loss of stimulation when he was hovering _right_ on the edge.

Ace let go of his chin and he lost his rather precarious balance, toes slipping on the concrete floor. Kaku caught his leg before he could swing too much, bending his knee so that his heel rested against his ass.

"Let's leave him here for a while," Ace rubbed his thumb over the head of Sanji's leaking cock, making him cry out again as pleasure-pain lanced through his body.

"Mm," Kaku agreed vaguely, grabbing another length of rope and lashing his calf to his thigh so that he was fully suspended, one leg straight above his head and the other bent in half. "Hang around for a bit, lad," he chuckled, letting go of Sanji's leg, and Sanji gasped as gravity took over, pulling his body down.

They left him there like that, hanging in the air and swaying slightly, as they walked out of the frame to end the scene.

000

"You look nervous."

"I am, rather," Kaku laughed, leaning over the balcony railing and looking back when Sanji came up to stand beside him.

He was smoking, dressed in a bathrobe, and he settled himself beside the other man and glanced at him.

"What for?"

"Well, in essence, this is a…test for me," Kaku shrugged. "I mean, it determines whether or not I'll get more work doing this sort of thing. I'm hardly complaining about my current job, of course, but it doesn't pay nearly as much, and I just…hope I'm doing a good job."

"You are, if I have any say," Sanji grunted. "Trust me, I've been edged a _lot,_ but I was about a second away from coming and nobody except Ace can get me _that_ close."

"Well, to be fair, I _have_ watched a lot of your shoots," Kaku was blushing and it was kind of endearing. "I mean, this is going sound exceptionally creepy, but I did some…research….to see if I could tell what you really liked or what your body responded to the most…"

"In this industry? That's not creepy," Sanji promised, although he was probably as red as Kaku because talking about it outside of the scene still felt awkward at times. "I'm glad. That's why I like working with Ace so much, because he _knows_ me, and I never have to worry the way I do with some rookie dom that has no idea who I am and doesn't really care because they're just going through the motions."

"Oh," Kaku blinked, his eyes wider than normal. "Thank you. I'm glad you're enjoying yourself," he cleared his throat and shuffled his feet, and Sanji leaned in before he could think about why he shouldn't, only realizing at the last moment that maybe it wasn't a good idea.

"Sorry," he pulled back. "Fuck. I'm so used to kissing Ace when he gets nervous or anything to comfort him."

"Mm," Kaku made a rather non-committal sound. "Yeah. I c'n see why you wouldn't want to with me," he looked off to the side and Sanji felt awful because yeah, the other man immediately assumed it was about his looks and that wasn't the case at all.

"Would you let me?" he asked softly, causing Kaku's head to whip back around.

He blinked, nodding slowly, and Sanji held his chin gently and leaned in, tilting his head to work around Kaku's nose and pressing his lips lightly to the other man's.

Kaku sighed against his mouth, returning the kiss after a moment or two, and when Sanji pulled away he could tell the older man was already more relaxed for it.

"Thank you," Kaku leaned against his shoulder. "As you c'n prob'ly imagine, I don't get many people offering to do that."

"So you _can_ kiss people!" Ace was _right there,_ of course, and Kaku flailed a little when Ace swooped in to kiss him as well. "Awesome!"

"You're fucked now," Sanji informed him bluntly. "Once Ace knows somebody's cool with kissing you'll never get away from him."

"I think I'm okay with that," Kaku smiled back, though he looked less enthused when Ace ruffled his hair. "Sanji, I was thinking…"

"Yeah?" Sanji finished his cigarette, butting it out on the stone railing.

"For the next scene…you want to try that contraption you saw me testing the other day?" he looked eager now instead of anxious and Sanji nodded instantly.

He was pretty sure it would test his limits, even with his flexibility, but that excited him and he knew that Kaku of all people would be able to tell if he was too uncomfortable.

"What is this thing?" Ace glanced between them and Sanji grinned, leaning to kiss him briefly.

"You'll see," he stood up, starting to head toward the door, and knew that even if he didn't get to come for a while yet…and he wouldn't…he was still going to enjoy every second of what going to happen.

 **Notes:**

 **1.** Originally this entire shoot was going to be one chapter but then it sort of…grew…so I'm going to have to extend it to two.

 **2.** I was really nervous about actually writing out a scene with Kaku as the dom because I didn't know how many people would be cool with that, but the response I got in the reviews to the last chapter was very positive so I hope this was okay!

 **3.** As always, thank you all so much for all the reviews/comments/etc. because they do inspire me to keep writing and I'm still so glad people are enjoying this fic :)


	8. Chapter 8

**Title:** Control  
 **Author:** kikokus (AoiTsukikage)  
 **Rating:** NC-17  
 **Characters/Pairing:** Ace/Law/Sanji in all combinations, side Marco/Ace, Sanji/others  
 **Chapter:** 8/?  
 **Word Count:** 3023  
 **Summary:** In which Sanji and Ace are models for a BDSM site and Law's the new guy doing his first shoot (Dom!Ace, sub!Sanji-and-Law)

 **Chapter Eight**

"This is probably going to be a short scene," Kaku was directing the cameramen when Sanji entered the room, eyeing the now-flat contraption that he knew could curve upward farther than most people would be able to endure. "But I want all of you to watch him carefully in case something goes wrong."

"I'll be fine," Sanji walked over, undoing the belt on his robe. "Seriously."

"I still want to take precautions," Kaku glanced at him. "I was only on there for maybe half a minute and I was already starting to feel it, and I wasn't restrained the way you're going to be. If you have _any_ cramping, tell me immediately."

"I will," Sanji promised, placing the robe on a waiting chair and walking over to the device. "Are we good to go?"

"Yeah," Kaku grabbed a few lengths of rope and joined him. "Lie down, we'll get you tied first and then crank it up, okay?"

Sanji huffed and rolled his eyes, reaching to wrap his arms around Kaku's neck and staying there until the other man settled his hands on Sanji's waist, his body losing some of the tension Sanji had seen was there since he'd entered the room.

"You can touch me. Whenever you want. Okay? That's kind of the point here," he chuckled. "It doesn't have to be so formal."

"I'm still getting used to that part," Kaku admitted. "You know when I edit videos I don't get to see what goes on off-camera, so this is rather new to me."

"Well," Sanji looked around, seeing that most of the cameraman weren't paying them any attention any longer, and leaned to kiss Kaku again, sliding his hands into the back pockets of the older man's jeans.

Kaku made a tiny noise against his lips before stepping closer, his hands tightening on Sanji's hips.

"Hey! No starting without me!"

Sanji broke away with a laugh as Ace bounded over, as always needing to be in the center of the action. He wrapped himself around Sanji from behind, chin on his shoulder as he leaned closer to kiss Kaku.

"Is it always this…friendly?" Kaku still looked a little unsure.

"It depends on who's in the scene, really," Sanji shrugged, sliding his hands up Kaku's back. "But if Ace and I are involved, yeah."

"Seriously, though, if it's too much, we'll back off," Ace's voice became utterly serious and Kaku shook his head slowly.

"No, it's perfectly fine. Maybe I should have known, but I didn't realize just how…relaxed everything is between scenes," he was blushing a little and Sanji leaned to kiss his cheek.

"Hey, we're the same assholes who sit in your edit suite and make fun of people. That's never going to change," he promised, eventually getting a tiny smile and a nod from Kaku. "Good."

"So? We ready to get going again?" Ace eyed the device stationed in the center of the room, breath washing hot over Sanji's ear.

"Yeah," he nodded, walking over to it and stretching out his back and shoulders as he went.

He had a feeling he was going to need it.

000

"I keep telling you, I don't fucking _kno-_ ha!" he yelped, the riding crop coming down hard on his stomach. "Fuck!"

That earned him another smack and he moaned, the sting lasting long after the shock of the impact had faded.

"You're not a very fast learner, are you?" Kaku swung a leg over his body so that he was basically sitting on Sanji's abs, and while he wasn't a heavy man by any means, the extra pressure forced Sanji's back into the metal plates of the table.

He was currently cranked up nearly as much as the device could go, back forced into an almost perfect arch with his feet planted on the ground and his wrists above his head, each limb tied to metal rings bolted into the floor. He couldn't even see what was happening with how much he was bent, and trying to lift his head only put more strain on his shoulders.

"You're fucking sick, both of you," he growled, whining when Kaku grabbed his jaw and forced his head up.

"Every time you mouth off to me, it'll hurt worse," Kaku flattened the top half of his body out so it was pressed tight to Sanji's, his feet never leaving the ground. It was a rather impressive show of flexibility all on its own though he hardly looked affected at all. "I don't want to hurt a pretty thing like you," he slid his fingers into Sanji's mouth and the blond's lips closed around them instinctively, sucking as he kept his eyes on Kaku's face. "Good boy," he murmured, pulling his fingers out and sitting up. "Ace?"

"Yeah."

Sanji could hear footsteps, though he couldn't see where Ace was from his current position. He felt hands on his thighs before a mouth closed around his cock, and he jerked against his bonds, a groan slipping from his throat.

"See, this could be so easy for you," Kaku squatted beside him, tracing a finger down his cheek. "Just tell us where he is, and I'll let you come."

"I don't know!" he said again, breathing coming harsh as Ace damn near deep-throated him.

"I find that very hard to believe," Kaku sighed, standing and trailing a hand rather leisurely down Sanji's chest. He rubbed his thumb idly over one of the blond's peaked nipples, increasing the pressure when Sanji whined at the touch. "I don't know how you can still defend a coward like him."

"He's not a-"

"Isn't he?" Kaku asked, sounding utterly bored. "He abandoned you to a life of God-knows-what and took off without even, it seems, devising any sort of plan to rescue you. He _left_ you here, lad," he said firmly, and Sanji flinched at the words, though he hoped in reality they'd cause Law to feel at least a bit of guilt. "Why defend him?"

"B-because…" he moaned when Ace swallowed around him, his cock bumping the back of the older man's throat. "H-he…"

"What? Do you have _feelings_ for him?" Kaku laughed scathingly, pinching his nipple tightly and getting another choked-out noise. "Pathetic."

"He'll come back," Sanji said shakily, his body tightening up as he felt his orgasm building. "He'll come-ah!" he felt the exact moment his shoulders seized up, the shock sending a tremor down his spine as his eyes widened, and he couldn't do anything more than squeak out a tiny breath at the sharp lance of pain.

"Come on, Ace. Obviously we need to think of a different…tactic if we want him to be more forthcoming with his information," Kaku stepped away and Ace pulled off immediately, and Sanji barely registered the sound of footsteps through the haze of pain.

He reminded himself to breathe, though even making his chest expand enough to get air into his lungs hurt like hell.

"Babe? What is it?"

"Shoulders," he managed to gasp out, his voice breaking. "Fucking hell!"

"Ace, start lowering the table," Kaku's voice was brusque and Sanji heard a rather ominous clanking of metal a moment later. Sanji felt the ropes circling his wrists loosen and lowered his arms, straightening them in front of him. It served to take the pull off of his shoulders, at least, and by the time his body was flat again any pain had faded to a dull ache.

"Sit up. Slowly," Kaku slid an arm around his back and helped him, Sanji gritting his teeth as he lifted his body. "Good boy."

"Shit," he let out a shuddery breath once he was upright, his body shivering a little, and leaned gratefully into Kaku's warmth when the man put an arm around him. "Wow."

"Okay?" Ace looked worried, leaning in to brush Sanji's hair out of his eyes.

"Yeah. I just…cramped up. It's fine now," he shrugged his shoulders, but the pain was almost completely gone. "Thanks. For knowing I needed to stop," he looked up at Kaku, who nodded.

"I could tell the instant your muscles seized, though to be honest, you lasted far longer than I thought anybody could manage…even somebody with your level of flexibility," he chuckled and Sanji hummed, nuzzling against Kaku's shoulder.

"I'll take that as a compliment, coming from you," he murmured, feeling much better now. "I don't think I want to use that all the time, but it's pretty fucking intense."

"You did good," Kaku assured him, gripping Sanji's shoulders lightly and massaging a little, thumbs digging into the still-sore muscles.

"Mm, good enough to deserve a reward?" Sanji asked teasingly, rolling his shoulders back and sighing.

"More than," Ace leaned to kiss him and he wrapped his arms around the other man's neck, kissing back eagerly. "You looked so fucking hot like that, babe."

"Mm," Sanji hummed against his lips, letting himself relax.

"I'm thinking…" Kaku started, his hands still moving over Sanji's back and shoulders. "I don't want to put you in another difficult position, so how do you feel about being tied onto a sybian?" he asked. Sanji moaned into Ace's mouth, his cock already twitching.

"I think that's a yes," Ace broke away from his lips, laughing, and Sanji rolled his eyes because his damn body gave him away far too often.

"I promise you'll get to come at the end," Kaku murmured into his ear, voice low and filled with promise, and Sanji half-closed his eyes and nodded.

"Yeah. Sounds good."

"Good. Take a few minutes while I get things set up and then we'll continue, okay?" he patted Sanji's shoulders one final time, moving to undo his ankles from their bonds.

"Right," Sanji nodded, stretching his back out until his attention was rather thoroughly distracted by Ace deciding to kiss him again.

Although, he thought with a tiny smile, it was hardly a distraction he minded.

000

Well, Kaku might have said he wasn't going to put him in a 'difficult position', but as Sanji was starting to learn, that hardly meant things were going to be simple.

He was indeed tied to a sybian, knees on the ground on either side of it and both ankles locked into shackles that were bolted to the floor. His hands were cuffed behind him, a rope threading through the chain between the cuffs that was tied around the heavy iron collar around his neck, meaning that he couldn't move his arms too much without risking choking himself.

There was a ring on the front of the collar that had a pair of nipple clamps attached to it, and another on the back with a chain that Kaku was currently holding, pulling back just enough for Sanji to feel it starting to restrict his airflow.

"Here's how this is going to work," Kaku tugged the collar back again, making the clamps pull on his nipples, and he whined at the pain. He barely registered Ace moving in front of him and by the time he did, it was only to see him slide a tight ring over his already-hard cock. "You either talk now, or I turn this on and leave it running until you're ready to."

"I'm not telling you shit," he snarled, coughing when Kaku yanked the collar again.

"I'm tired of listening to you," he said in a completely bored tone, drawing a ball gag out of his pocket and forcing it between Sanji's teeth. "The next words out of your mouth better be something useful to me," he warned, something deadly cold in his voice.

"Should I?" Ace was holding the controls and Kaku nodded, watching the other man as he turned it to the lowest setting.

Sanji groaned, shifting back against the machine and letting it press deep inside of him. He could probably squirm enough so that it would hit his prostate, but since he had a feeling he wouldn't get to come that easily, he wanted to avoid that if he had a choice.

"Now," Kaku walked around so that Sanji could see him, and he narrowed his eyes and tried to look as furious as possible. "As you've probably figured out, your…reward for giving up information is that I let you have an orgasm. If not, it's no trouble for me to sit here all day, so once again, how much you put yourself through is entirely in your own hands."

Ace turned the machine up a little, making Sanji gasp. "Damn, I wouldn't mind watching him all day," he chuckled.

"He's quite something," Kaku's voice was dry as he moved back behind Sanji and pulled the collar again. "Just let us know when you've had enough. But if you ask me, he's not worth it."

Sanji wanted to reply, or at least make some attempt at replying, but he was already starting to feel the effects of the machine, the fine tremor in his limbs and short, gasping breaths he took a testament to just how badly he needed to come after being teased all day.

It took all of his concentration to stop himself from reaching his peak too quickly. His hands were clenched into fists, every muscle in his body taut, and when Ace turned up the sybian to its highest setting he nearly couldn't control it any longer.

"Don't you dare come!" Kaku snarled, pulling the collar enough that the panic from his airflow being constricted and the sharp tug of pain against his nipples was enough to take his mind off of how fucking _close_ he was for at least a few seconds.

He tried to squirm away, somehow, and Kaku thankfully let the collar drop, though his relief was momentary when he realized why.

Kaku grabbed his shoulders, holding him in place and pushing his body down so that it was impossible to get away. He felt his eyes roll back and he started to shiver almost violently at the unrelenting assault of pressure against his prostate.

He swore he saw stars for a moment because it felt so fucking _good,_ the pleasure almost too intense, and he barely had the presence of mind to moan out something around the gag that he hoped was a signal for Kaku to back off or it would be over far too soon.

"Turn it off," Kaku let go of him as the vibrations ceased, leaving him a shaking, sweaty, gasping mess. "Talk," he pulled the gag out.

"I d-don't know where he is, I swear…" Sanji was almost shocked at how _wrecked_ his voice sounded, like he was a second away from sobbing…and maybe he was, with how over-stimulated his body felt. "Please…please, I don't know!"

"I don't think he's lying," Ace took a step closer, reaching to grip Sanji's chin lightly and staring into his eyes.

"Please…" Sanji said again. "I…I can t-tell you his e-mail, that's…that's all I have, I swear, _please…"_

"Good enough," Kaku decided, not a single crack showing in his cold façade.

Sanji couldn't recall later what he'd even said, but Ace gave him a curt nod and stepped back, flipping the sybian to its highest setting immediately.

"Ha!" Sanji yelped, trying to get away from the feeling again. "I told you what you wanted now please let me come _please!"_ he forced out in one breath, literally using all of the control his body possessed to keep holding on.

"Come," Kaku said, the word clipped and short, and Sanji did immediately. He couldn't even get enough air into his lungs to moan, mouth open in a wordless cry and his hips fucking himself back onto the machine until he was spent.

If he wasn't tied onto the sybian he probably would have collapsed right to the floor, utterly drained and exhausted, and thankfully the other men decided not to tease him any farther since Ace turned the machine off.

"Now," Kaku moved closer again, pulling the collar just enough for his head to lift. "Tomorrow your friend is going to get a very interesting video sent to his e-mail, so if you have any…message for him, I suggest you say it now," he pointed toward one of the cameras.

Sanji opened his mouth to speak, coughing a little, and realized he didn't even have to act because he was still so completely overwhelmed.

"Law…" his voice cracked. "Please…please come save me. Don't leave me here. I _need_ you…" he gasped out.

"Good boy," Kaku stroked his fingers through Sanji's hair almost tenderly before withdrawing. "I told you, any person can be broken," he directed this to Ace, who gave Kaku a rather apprehensive look before nodding. "Come on, we've got an e-mail to send."

He walked away, not looking back once, though Ace gave Sanji a lingering glance before following the other man out of range of the cameras.

000

"Don't fall asleep."

"I'm _trying,"_ Sanji forced himself awake, wondering how he'd even gotten through the post-shoot interview with how tired he was. "Fucking hell, Kaku."

"Too much?" Kaku sounded anxious now and Sanji pushed himself up enough to kind of slump into his lap, nuzzling against his neck. "I'm so sorry, Sanji, I thought…"

"It was _amazing,"_ he said honestly, leaning up to kiss the other man. "If they don't give you regular gigs after this…"

"He's right," Ace sat down beside them, throwing an arm over Kaku's shoulders so he could be as close as possible. "You're amazing, man."

"Well, thank you," Kaku looked rather adorably innocent now, blushing and laughing nervously against Ace's lips when Ace kissed him. "I…enjoyed that."

"Good," Ace had a rather thoughtful look on his face. "So, how long d'you think it'll take to edit this?"

"I'll start working on it tomorrow," he decided, "so if you both want to come in and help me it shouldn't take very long at all. And then hopefully…"

"Yeah," Sanji sighed. "Hopefully."

Hopefully Law would see it.

Hopefully Law would come back.

Though, if he had to be honest with himself, considering how Law had reacted the last time they'd seen each other…

He didn't really have much hope.

 **Notes:**

 **1.** I wasn't actually planning on finishing this chapter tonight but then I started writing and just…couldn't stop, so have it as an early Christmas gift ;)

 **2.** As always, thank you all so much for the continued support, and please do feel free to keep commenting/reviewing if you're so inclined :)


	9. Chapter 9

**Title:** Control  
 **Author:** kikokus (AoiTsukikage)  
 **Rating:** NC-17  
 **Characters/Pairing:** Ace/Law/Sanji in all combinations, side Marco/Ace, Sanji/others  
 **Chapter:** 9/?  
 **Word Count:** 3168  
 **Summary:** In which Sanji and Ace are models for a BDSM site and Law's the new guy doing his first shoot (Dom!Ace, sub!Sanji-and-Law)

 **Chapter Nine**

"Do you not answer your phone?"

Sanji started a little as the door slammed open, the click of heeled boots against the tiled floor loud in the stifled silence of the editing suite.

"Hmm?" Kaku looked behind him, shrugging. "I'm working."

"Rob's been texting you for, as he put it, 'the last fucking hour', so suffice to say he's not happy right now," Kalifa's eyes flicked over to where Ace and Sanji were standing before they moved back to the screen, a sultry smirk appearing on her lips. "Ah. This is your attempt to lure the little runaway back."

Sanji was currently hoping the floor would open up and swallow him, because Kalifa intimidated him probably more than anybody else at the site. Yes, he knew that technically she could look up his shoots anytime (hell, anybody in the _world_ could), but having her standing right there while he was in the same room made it worse.

"Don't look so traumatized," she chuckled, her voice slinky and seductive even when she wasn't intentionally trying to make it sound that way. "You've got nothing I haven't seen before."

That didn't really make Sanji feel _better,_ but he sat up a little straighter and tried to focus on the monitor and not how fucking sexy she was.

"Tell Rob I'll be done when I'm done," Kaku pulled the conversation back to where it had originally started, though all that did was draw a long-suffering sigh from Kalifa.

"You know as well as I do that…"

"He won't stop badgering me until I answer, I know, but he can wait a little longer," Kaku decided, waving a hand as if to signify that it was his final response.

Kalifa nodded, crossing her arms and turning smartly on her heel before adding: "it's bad, Kaku. From what I'm hearing…" she sighed, and Sanji saw Kaku's head lift up a little at that. "Marco's not going to be happy."

Sanji shared a glance with Ace, who looked just as confused as he was, because if Marco was involved that had to mean it had something to do with the site…but he'd never heard of anybody named 'Rob' working there, and normally nothing at a porn website would result in the serious attitude Kalifa was currently adopting.

"I'll be out in a few minutes, then," Kaku decided, earning a nod from her before she walked out of the edit suite.

Kaku sighed then, slumping back in his chair and rubbing his temples while his phone buzzed again.

"Hey, man, if you need to go…" Ace started, trailing off when it became obvious that neither he nor Sanji had _any_ idea what was happening or what to say.

"I probably should, if we don't want to deal with this for the next few hours," he picked up his phone and glanced at it. "Sorry, lads, I'd hoped we could get this done today, but…"

"Hey, if it's an emergency…and it kinda sounds like it is…that takes priority," Sanji clapped a hand on his shoulder.

Yeah, truth be told he'd like to get the video out as fast as possible so Law could see it…hopefully…but in the grand scheme of things it really wasn't that important.

"Thank you," Kaku looked relieved. "Can either of you come in tomorrow?"

"I'm free," Ace shrugged, looking at Sanji.

"Yeah, we're closed between lunch and dinner at the restaurant so I should have a few hours to pop over," Sanji replied, figuring that if Zeff decided to get on his case about doing prep-work he'd tell the old geezer to mind his business.

"Great. I'll see you both then," Kaku turned off the monitors before giving them a hesitant smile and rushing off, looking far tenser than Sanji had ever seen him.

"Any idea what that was about?" Ace slid an arm around his waist, though Sanji guessed he probably already knew that neither of them could shed any light on what had just happened.

"None," he affirmed, frowning at the door. "I just hope it isn't too serious."

"Yeah. Guess we'll find out tomorrow," Ace said the words in a tone that implied that if they _didn't_ find out he'd be asking Marco directly, and Sanji couldn't blame him since if it was something that affected the site…it would affect all of them, as well.

"No use worrying about it now," he shrugged, leaning to kiss Ace's cheek. "Wanna come over for dinner?"

"As if I'd ever fucking turn down your cooking," Ace gave him a brilliant smile, hand resting rather possessively on his lower back as they left the room and headed out of the building.

000

He knew something was off the moment he entered the studio the next afternoon. It was too quiet, for one thing, and he didn't encounter anybody in the hallway as he headed toward the edit suite. Even the front desk girl had barely spared him a glance from behind her odd spiral glasses, her expression stony as she stared down at a file in her hand.

"Hey," he slid into the room, though Kaku's answering 'hello, Sanji' lacked the other man's normal enthusiasm, and when Sanji moved close enough to see over Kaku's chair his feeling of dread only intensified.

"Am I late?" Ace skidded in a few seconds later, leaning on Sanji's shoulder. "Okay, let's get this…shit, man, you look awful!"

"Thanks," Kaku gave them both a rather pained grin that turned into more of a grimace when he shifted in the chair.

Sanji elbowed Ace none-too-gently in the ribs, even though what he said was true: Kaku was almost deathly pale, his skin clammy and his breathing ragged, and there was a tightness to the corners of his eyes that Sanji knew meant he was in incredible pain and trying to hide it.

"What happened?" he asked softly, going to lay a hand on Kaku's shoulder before thinking better of it.

"Nothing," Kaku's voice was icy. "Let's get this thing edited and then we can all go home," he said the words between gritted teeth.

"Hey," Ace's demeanor had turned instantly compassionate after his initial statement. He knelt beside Kaku's chair, looking up at him. "It's _us,_ man."

"I know," Kaku gave him a marginally more believable smile. "But it's, unfortunately, classified."

Sanji narrowed his eyes, wondering privately why an editor for a kink site would be doing 'classified' things. "Does this have anything at all to do with why you rushed off yesterday?" he asked slowly, getting a steely look in return. "Okay, fine, but you look about two seconds away from passing out so don't blame us for being fucking concerned."

"I don't," Kaku slumped back in the chair, biting his lower lip as his eyes squeezed shut. "Fucking _hell."_

He clapped one hand over his side, fingers tightening on the thick material of the hooded sweatshirt he was wearing. Ace looked up to meet his eyes, reaching a hand out and waiting for Kaku's nod before he gently pulled the shirt up.

"Holy shit."

He looked like he was going to be sick and Sanji couldn't blame him once he'd taken a look for himself, because even though Kaku's side was swathed in bandages, the amount of them spoke to a pretty serious injury.

"Is it bleeding again?" Kaku asked, sounding defeated.

"No," Ace carefully pulled the shirt back into place. "But you should be at home. Or at a hospital," he amended as Kaku gave a rueful chuckle.

"Hospital wouldn't help me," he sighed. "Classified, remember? And it's not that bad…"

"Cut the bullshit," Sanji said firmly, which caused Kaku to sigh and nod slowly.

"Fine, then. It hurts like hell. But I'm hopped up on a shit-ton of painkillers right now so I can handle editing the last scene and then I promise I'll get some rest," he looked toward Sanji, who finally nodded.

"Okay. But shit, man, finding Law isn't nearly as important as you…"

"It's more important than you know," Kaku muttered cryptically, his entire body tense.

"Classified, right?" Sanji rolled his eyes, because he was already really fucking tired of being in the dark, and now apparently Law was involved, too.

Ace stood beside Kaku's chair, one hand moving to stroke through his hair. "We just want you to take care of yourself."

"I know," Kaku leaned up into the touch. "And I appreciate it more than I could ever properly articulate."

Sanji immediately felt guilty for snapping, even though he honestly _was_ worried. Yeah, Kaku was keeping secrets, but Sanji had to trust that if it was anything that would affect him directly, he'd find out about it.

He moved closer and let his hand rest on Kaku's shoulder, getting another tiny smile from the older man. "This shouldn't take long," he promised, and Sanji shared a glance with Ace, both of them knowing they'd do their best to help things move along as quickly as possible.

000

"He's hiding something."

"I thought we'd already decided that?" Ace yawned, blinking at Sanji and looking half-asleep. "It's too early for this, babe."

"It's bothering me," Sanji sat up, the sheet falling to pool around his waist as he stared rather intently at the wall. "Marco hasn't said anything to you?"

"I haven't even _seen_ Marco all week," Ace pouted, pulling the blanket up under his nose and snuggling back into the pillow. "But if what they said the other day was true this involves him, too, so…"

"Which is the _other_ thing that makes no sense," Sanji puffed out his cheeks, trying to connect all the dots in his head.

"No," Ace admitted, giving an irritated huff when he seemingly decided he was giving up on going back to sleep. "But they're not talking, so it's not worth it to literally lose sleep over it."

"I know," Sanji heaved a sigh. "But it's going to bother me anyway"

"Then don't think about it," Ace tugged on his hand to get him to lie down again. "Think about how your video's going up soon and that Law's going to see it…"

"If you wanted to give me _less_ things to worry about, you're not succeeding," Sanji groaned, because now he _was_ going to be thinking about that, and…

"Mm, then how about I make it so that you can't think at all?" Ace raised an eyebrow, giving him a roguish grin, and Sanji hummed.

"You're that confident in your abilities, hmm?" he smirked, pulling the other man on top of him.

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Ace leaned down to kiss him and Sanji decided that, even if it wasn't easy, he was going to at least _try_ not to worry so much about everything.

And, though he'd never admit it out loud, Ace was pretty damn good at helping him do just that.

000

The day the video was set to go up he received a rather cryptic text from Kaku telling him to come to the edit suit 'right away', so as soon as he could get away from the lunch rush he headed straight to the studio. He hadn't seen Kaku since the day they'd finished editing the shoot, though he'd gotten a few messages from the other man assuring Sanji that he was doing fine, but Sanji had to admit he'd feel better about believing that if he could actually see Kaku himself.

The front desk girl barely looked up again, eyes glued to her computer screen (or at least, Sanji assumed they were, since it was impossible to tell where she was looking behind those glasses), and when he entered the editing room he was surprised to find all the screens dark and the room deserted.

He took out his phone to let Kaku know he was there when he heard the door hinges squeak and turned, the phone nearly slipping from his grasp as he laid eyes on the man standing in the doorway.

Law looked…tired, the dark circles under his eyes more prevalent than Sanji remembered and the slump of his shoulders making him appear small and vulnerable. He took a hesitant step inside the room, clearing his throat, but he didn't say anything and Sanji felt his momentary excitement at seeing Law again fade since the expression on Law's face was more neutral than anything else.

"Sanji," Law finally cleared his throat and spoke, looking everywhere but directly at the other man. "I…"

"Why are you back here?" Sanji cut right to the chase. He'd been dealing with not getting any straight answers from Law for far too long already…and, if he had to admit it, he was a _little_ disappointed that Law hadn't come back because he'd seen the video, since Sanji was still pretty proud of his performance in that one.

"I wanted to apologize," Law was standing ramrod-straight, hands clenched into fists at his sides. "I acted in a way that was unfair to you, and I feel badly for it."

"That's it?" Sanji blinked at him, incredulous. "You run away from here without a word, then you show up at the restaurant and run away again, and all I'm getting is a lame-ass apology?"

Law flinched back as if Sanji had physically struck him, hunching his shoulders. "It's all I can offer."

"Well, I guess you get credit for actually showing your face here again," Sanji grunted. "But if you've got nothing to say to me, I don't see any reason for you to hang around."

Law nodded slowly, looking toward the door, and Sanji felt something in him snap because he was _tired_ of it. It wasn't all Law's fault, of course, but now that he knew Law was somehow involved with all of the mysteries it only served to make his patience disappear completely.

"Yeah, just fucking run away again," he snorted. "It seems to be all you're good at."

Law winced again, not looking at him. "Perhaps it is," he murmured, taking a rather wobbly step toward the door. "I apologize again. You won't see me after today."

And damn it, for as strong as Sanji was trying to be right now, the thought of never seeing Law again…and this time, he _knew_ he would truly never see him again…wasn't one he wanted to even consider.

"Wait," he was reaching out before he could stop himself, hand closing around Law's wrist, and he felt the other man freeze at the touch. "Why did you really come back?" he asked, trying to keep his voice soft instead of showing all of the annoyance and frustration he was currently feeling toward Law.

"To apologize," Law didn't turn around. "I cannot tell you more than that, but the way I acted was unfair to you especially and I didn't feel right leaving things between us that way."

"Law," Sanji let go of him, taking a step back and trying to hide how unimpressed he was by somebody else who seemed to be in the know leaving him in the dark. Kaku and Marco he could accept, maybe, but Law had done _one shoot_ with the studio and seemingly knew more than Sanji. "Look at me."

Law hesitated for so long that Sanji almost thought he would just leave, but finally he turned and Sanji felt like those oddly-hued golden eyes of his were boring straight into Sanji's soul.

The one thing Sanji could clearly tell, however, was that Law was telling the truth. Maybe it wasn't the most ideal answer, since Sanji really hadn't gotten an answer at _all,_ but he could tell Law was truly apologetic.

"I really do feel badly that I can't tell you more than I have at the moment," Law swallowed visibly, looking more uncomfortable than ever. "But I didn't act in the way I did to hurt you. I assure you that."

"I believe you," Sanji could see the tension seep out of Law's shoulders with those words. "I don't fucking know what you were playing at, but at least you feel guilty, so I'll accept your apology," he decided.

Law nodded, shuffling his feet a little. "So. I suppose I should still…"

Sanji didn't know where his next impulse came from, but the urge to kiss Law had been thrumming through his body since the other man had entered the room and he didn't see any reason to deny himself any longer.

Law made a tiny, surprised noise into his mouth when Sanji cupped one hand around the back of his neck and mashed their lips together without any semblance of grace, but it thankfully only took a few seconds for the other man's arms to come around Sanji's waist as he returned the kiss just as fiercely.

Sanji breathed a sigh of relief, clutching at Law with both hands now, and _fuck,_ the spark between them was just as intense as it had been while they were shooting.

Still, they weren't really in the best place to be making out, so he pulled back reluctantly. "Um. So. I guess you do…like me?" his voice came out rather high and squeaky, and it was only when Law nodded that he let out a breath he hadn't even realized he'd been holding.

"I do," Law was still holding him close. "The reason I…left…it had nothing to do with how I felt about you."

"I told you I believed you," he didn't let go of Law either, though he did pull back enough to look at him. "But I don't believe you came back just to apologize. There's been too much weird shit happening lately for me to accept that."

"You're too smart for your own good," Law chuckled, his hands sliding down to Sanji's hips. "Although that was most certainly one of the reasons I came back. The other…well, as I said, I can't explain any more at the moment, but…"

He stopped as a knock came at the door, and Sanji glanced to the side to see Kalifa standing there. "Both of you are wanted in the boardroom," she said brusquely, her expression softening when she noticed the intimate way they were standing. "Everybody else is there already but Kaku thought you two should have a chance to catch up privately first."

And well, that pretty much confirmed to Sanji that everything was connected. "We should probably go," he took a step away, reaching to squeeze Law's hand and giving him a smile to let him know that he wasn't angry.

…Well, he wasn't angry _yet,_ at least, and it depended on whatever was about to happen next as to whether he stayed that way or not.

More than anything, though, he wanted answers, and even if they weren't ones that he liked, it was better than being in the dark.

He followed Kalifa down the hallway, hearing the clump of Law's boots behind him, and hoped desperately that, when this was all over, he still felt the same way.

 **Notes:**

 **1.** I don't have much to say this time around, other than that there's definitely going to be a lot of plot in the next chapter and I hope people find it interesting! Thank you all again for all the kind comments and support I've received for this fic (oh, and Law is back, so that's a good thing, right?)!


	10. Chapter 10

**Title:** Control  
 **Author:** kikokus (AoiTsukikage)  
 **Rating:** NC-17  
 **Characters/Pairing:** Ace/Law/Sanji in all combinations, side Marco/Ace, Sanji/others  
 **Chapter:** 10/?  
 **Word Count:** 4428  
 **Summary:** In which Sanji and Ace are models for a BDSM site and Law's the new guy doing his first shoot (Dom!Ace, sub!Sanji-and-Law)

 **Chapter Ten**

Sanji had never been inside the boardroom before.

He wasn't sure what he was expecting, exactly, but so many of the rooms in the building were dungeon-esque and even the editing suites were stark and practical, but this room was almost opulent in comparison.

The wall was lined with windows that overlooked the city, the view stretching so far that Sanji could see the harbor and the Baratie anchored there. The table was made of rich, dark mahogany, polished to a shine so brilliant that Sanji could damn near see his reflection, and the chairs circling it looked so plush that Sanji thought it would be easy to curl up and go to sleep in them.

There was a silver serving platter set off to the side, stacked up with pastries that looked good even by his rather high standards, and a top of the line espresso maker on the counter beside it.

All in all, it looked like the room high-ranking executives would use, and not the administrators of a porn site, but Sanji wasn't really one to judge because they _did_ pay well.

"Do _you_ have any idea what the fuck is happening?" Ace looked halfway between worried and angry, but his mouth snapped shut when he saw Law. "I don't know whether to punch you or kiss you," he glanced at Sanji again as if looking for guidance.

"I don't know either," Sanji admitted with a shrug, "but hopefully we're here to get answers so you can decide later."

Law flinched back at that, something undeniably guilty in his expression, and Sanji immediately felt a sense of dread again because he _really_ didn't want to come out of this hating Law.

"You'll get your answers."

Sanji looked up, his eyes drawn to the man who'd spoken. He wasn't particularly remarkable physically, of average height and stature, and he was dressed down to his shirtsleeves, leaning back casually against the counter. His thick, dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail and aside from the rather severe arch of his eyebrows, by far the most interesting thing about him was the large white bird currently settled on his shoulder.

A large white bird that, by the looks of it, was currently holding a tiny espresso cup in its wing and was dunking its beak into it periodically.

"Rob, behave," Kalifa said brusquely as she went to sit in one of the chairs, and Sanji blinked.

"You're…"

"The one who wouldn't stop texting me, yes."

Sanji stiffened when an arm slid around his waist but soon relaxed into the embrace, reaching back and cupping his hand over the hip of the man holding him from behind. "Hey. How're you doing?"

"Better," Kaku's chin was resting on his shoulder. "I didn't want you worrying about me."

"Of course I'm gonna worry," Sanji snorted.

"He _should_ be at home resting but you probably know how damn stubborn he is already," the pigeon…and Sanji blinked, because _what the fuck…_ said.

"Rob," Kalifa said again, and Sanji had the sense that she was probably one of the few people he actually listened to.

Not that Sanji could blame him, because Kalifa was fucking intimidating in her own right.

"Ignore him," Kaku chuckled. "I think his mission in live is to drive people up the wall."

"And apparently send you a million texts in a row," Ace grunted, staring rather intently at the man.

"You don't have to be suspicious of me, boy, I'm not your enemy," he took a step forward and held out his hand, Ace hesitantly shaking it after a moment's hesitation. "Rob Lucci."

"Ace Portgas, but I have a feeling you know that," Ace's eyes flicked over to Kaku again. "And since all I know about you is that you called him out on some 'classified' bullshit and he showed up the next day covered in bandages and looking fucking awful, you'll forgive me for being wary."

"It's not his fault," Kaku hugged Sanji a little tighter before letting go and moving to lay a hand on Ace's shoulder. "I was careless, and in all honestly he's been a better nursemaid than I would ever have given him credit for."

Sanji heard a shuffling behind him and turned to look as Marco entered the room, though the sight of him made Law's shoulders hunch as he apparently tried to hide himself inside the collar of his hooded sweatshirt.

"Ah, good, we're all here. Well. Almost," Marco lightly brushed Ace's arm on the way by, a gesture that would have gone unnoticed to most people but that Sanji zeroed in on right away. "We just have to wait for the other admins, but please, take a seat…have some coffee and donuts if you want," he looked as unfazed as ever, eyes half-closed and posture relaxed as he dropped into one of the chairs.

"The term 'fashionably late' was not invented for important meetings!"

"You know I like to make an entrance, and it's only like five fucking minutes!"

"And now we're all here," Marco looked more exhausted just by hearing the voices, and while Sanji had never really met the other two site admins directly, there was no mistaking them.

"Hey, kids!"

This was spoken by a rather handsome red-haired man who waved enthusiastically, a wide grin on his face. "You probably already have half an idea, but I'm Shanks, and this grump over here," he gestured to his companion, who was as severe and stoic as Shanks seemed casual and carefree, "is Dracule Mihawk. He always looks like he just swallowed a lemon," he added in a stage-whisper and Sanji had to hide his smile because Mihawk didn't look like the kind of man that would appreciate jokes.

"This is all of us?" Mihawk set a hand on Shanks' shoulder to steer him toward the chairs, and Sanji noticed with a jolt that the man only had one arm. He vaguely remembered hearing something about that, but Shanks had such an aura of positivity about him that Sanji hadn't even registered the fact until now.

"Yeah," Marco yawned, running a hand through his floppy hair. "So I think we should get started. There's a lot to explain, and I don't think any of us quite know the whole story yet."

"Well. One of us does," Mihawk's sharp gaze turned to Law, and the younger man gulped and sank further into his shirt. "Still, I suppose for Ace and Sanji's sake we should start at the very beginning."

"Seriously, guys, sit down, this is gonna be long and you're making me nervous with your hovering," Shanks apparently decided that chairs were overrated and flopped right onto Mihawk's lap, something that, Sanji noted with some interest, the other man didn't seem at all fazed by.

Still, he took his seat after grabbing both a cup of coffee and a pastry, Ace ending up on one side of him and Law on the other.

"First things first, I think you'd better tell them who you are, Rob," Mihawk looked to Lucci, who nodded and took his own seat while the pigeon hopped onto the table and started pecking at a nearby donut.

"Probably. Well, as you've likely began to realize by now, these two," he made a sweeping gesture that encompassed both Kaku and Kalifa, "aren't employees here. Or, that is, this is merely a cover-up job for the real one that we all share."

Sanji leaned forward to look at Kaku, who was seated on the other side of Ace, raising a curled eyebrow.

"I'm sorry we couldn't tell you sooner, but it would defeat the purpose of our role here," Kaku wasn't meeting his eyes and he looked away entirely as soon as he'd finished speaking.

"Right. The truth is, we're part of a special task force known as CP9, and they're here on behalf of the city to essentially keep an eye on things and make sure everything is being done in accordance with labor laws. As you can well imagine, there are a fair number of people in town that don't look kindly upon the idea of a prominent kink site being headquartered in the city, and that number extends to the city council."

"Not the mayor, thankfully, because Iceburg is the fucking coolest politician I've ever met," Shanks grinned. "But he doesn't have the final say and pretty soon after we started council decided they'd only give us license to operate so long as things were totally by-the-book."

"Kalifa being sent in as one of the performers was a natural choice," Lucci took over the story again and Kalifa smirked at him. "And we decided Kaku posing as an editor would be perfectly logical given that he'd be able to see most of the employees at the studio that way and would be able to tell if any of them were troublemakers," he explained.

"We obviously couldn't let anybody but the admins know or else people would be constantly on their best behavior and trying to hide things from us, so we had to make you all believe we were just normal employees," Kalifa added, and while part of Sanji was a little hurt that he'd known Kaku for so long already and the other man hadn't seen fit to trust him with this, he could also see the logic in that.

"When you say 'troublemakers'…" Ace broke in, spinning his chair from side-to-side. "You mean…criminals?"

"In a way, yes," Lucci nodded slowly. "But…perhaps I'll let the admins continue the explanation from here," he looked to the three of them, and Marco heaved a sigh.

"Everybody in this room knows how much we stress proper treatment and safety here at the site, but the porn industry…it's a haven for illegal drug use," he sounded dejected. "And as much as we try to curb that by doing extensive background checks and making sure everybody working here is clean and healthy, there's always people that slip through the cracks."

"The truth is, some of the people that work here…they're only doing it for the money," Shanks added, leaning his elbow on the table. "Getting hundreds of dollars for a single shoot is too good an incentive to pass up, and considering that we get a lot of college-aged kids in here, it's probably because it's a way to get a lot of money right away. And, much as I want to think the best of everybody, I damn well know not all of them are putting it toward their tuition," he looked sad at that.

"And of course if city council ever got wind that we're, even inadvertently, financing the drug trade in the city, it would be a rather convincing argument to shutting us down altogether," Mihawk took over, staring around the room with his sharp golden eyes as he spoke.

"So that's the problem?" Ace asked hesitantly, though Mihawk gave a quick shake of his head at the question.

"It leads into it, but the _real_ issue, as it's come to light, is that there are several…dishonest employees working for the site," Lucci brushed some crumbs from the tabletop as the pigeon huffed in a rather irritated fashion and hopped back onto his shoulder. "And, as people whose job it is to go undercover, I'm rather embarrassed that we didn't see it."

"It isn't your fault, Rob," Shanks shook his head. "These guys…they're working for somebody who's spent his entire life doing this sort of shit, and because a high employee turnover isn't exactly uncommon in this industry, nothing looked outwardly suspicious."

"To clarify," Mihawk cleared his throat, glaring between the other two men in an apparent chiding for being far too vague for Sanji or Ace to follow, "these…employees…are soliciting new recruits to further their own goals. Illegal trafficking," he said slowly, and Sanji nodded, even though he still didn't understand most of what was going on.

"I think we'll let Law take over from here," Marco, true to his nature, looked incredibly bored with the proceedings. "He's the one who brought it to our attention, after all, so he'll have the best chance at explaining the whole story."

"Right," Law heaved a giant breath, grabbing his cup of coffee and downing almost all of it in one swallow. "Well. I suppose to start with…have either of you heard of the Donquixote Family?"

"Vaguely," Sanji looked over at Ace, who shrugged. "They're connected with that Doflamingo guy, right? The one who owns a bunch of shit around town?"

"Yes," Law nodded. "To most of the city he's known as an eccentric but affluent businessman, but that he's earned his wealth by illegal means is something he takes great strides to cover up."

"Huh," Sanji blinked, even though honestly he really had no opinion on Doflamingo one way or the other. "And how are you in the know?"

"Because," Law gave him a smile that was hardly pleasant. "I'm part of the Donquixote Family."

"No shit," Ace's voice was dry and Sanji found it impossible to tell what the dark-haired man was thinking, other than that his look toward Law was even more suspicious than before.

"Not by choice, mind you. I was orphaned when I was a young child and he took me in…he does that, you see, takes in orphaned children and portrays this image of a kindly man wanting to look out for the less fortunate, but in reality he only chooses those he believes can be useful to him or those he can groom to be the perfect minions. All of his Family were either those he grew up with or those he recruited from a young age, which is why they're the only ones privy to his secrets, because he seemingly can't fathom the idea that any of us would betray him."

"So what's your incentive to stay?" Ace asked coolly.

"Well, the threat of a bullet through the head goes a long way in being convincing," Law bared his teeth in a horribly forced grin. "But apart from that, he offers us what he thinks we crave most: a home, safety, a family, all the luxuries we want, in exchange for our loyalty and doing any and every whim he commands us to."

"Fuck," Sanji blinked, because that…sounded like it should be out of a movie or something, not real life. "So by telling us…"

"Yes, if word of this ever gets back to Doflamingo, I'll be dead," Law sighed, though when he looked around the room again he didn't seem frightened, just incredibly exhausted. "It's worth it, though. At best, I'll lose my tuition, since he's paying for me to go to school to become a surgeon, but I'd rather pay my own way than know it's being done with dirty money."

"So if this guy's doing illegal things all over the place, why hasn't he been caught yet? You could just turn him in," Ace shrugged, but Law let out a harsh laugh at that suggestion.

"He hides evidence of his activities extremely well, and without solid proof, I can't do a damn thing. Doflamingo's network is extensive, and whether he's bought people's silence or he's blackmailing them, there's a reason nobody's tried to take him down yet. Or, if they have, why they're six feet under the ground," he said the last part quietly, his eyes darkening.

"So you were sent here to recruit us," Sanji realized, sinking back into his chair. "Weren't you?"

"I was," Law admitted. "Doflamingo basically told me that just going to school wasn't earning my keep, and out of all the choices he gave me this one was at least _legal,"_ he shrugged. "My job, and the job of all the other members of his Family he's got working here, is to convince select new employees that there are far easier ways to make money…namely being the middlemen for drug and weapons deliveries. All we need to do is plant the seed and say we 'heard' about a guy…somebody Doflamingo's hand-picked to be one of his suppliers, of course…give them a way to contact him, and they find out all they have to do is deliver a package to a specified address to get the cash. If something goes wrong and they happen to get caught…well, there are plenty of other sheep, as Doflamingo would say," he muttered.

"Which is where things get bad for us," Shanks pointed out. "If one of them gets caught? They might well point to us as the place that set them up, and ignorance is hardly a good defense when we're already on probation with city council. Doflamingo's got enough connections that he could probably get his people off the hook if it came to it, but we'd take the fall."

"We've been lucky so far that no real trouble has come of this scheme of his, though it very nearly did the other day," Mihawk looked at Kaku, who sighed.

"Law tipped us off to an exchange that was going to happen with a small-time dealer the police had been keeping an eye on, and if it had gone through both he and the unfortunate girl delivering the drug shipment would have been arrested," Kalifa murmured. "We managed to intercept the deal, thankfully, and we've got enough clout with the city that we can make things like that disappear if we want."

"This guy, though, he obviously knew he was being tailed, and he'd decided that shooting the messenger was easier than anything else, so we had to intervene," Lucci cleared his throat.

"Wait, you got _shot?"_ Sanji's eyes widened and he turned to Kaku, the other man giving a rather nonchalant shrug of his shoulders.

"I didn't get 'shot', I got grazed by a bullet when I was trying to get the girl out of there," he mumbled, and Sanji could tell he didn't want to talk about it any longer. "She didn't say much, but from what you've said…" he looked at Law, "it wouldn't surprise me if Doflamingo…or his suppliers…threaten these poor kids to keep them quiet."

"It wouldn't surprise me, either," Law muttered dryly, his eyes narrowing.

"It doesn't matter," Marco said firmly. "Regardless of whether or not Doflamingo's trying to protect his assets here by using threats or blackmail or whatever else, all it takes is _one_ slip-up or a mention that whoever was caught worked here recently and somebody from the city would be up our ass."

"And while things may have worked out this time, there's no guarantee that will happen again. We can't take that chance," Mihawk looked even more serious now. "The sooner we can dismantle this scheme, the better, but we can't just fire all of the employees that are secretly working for Doflamingo since that would be a major red flag that somebody had outed him."

Sanji nodded, because he could see that, and while the entire situation was still more than a little confusing, he was starting to get a clearer picture of what was going on.

It was a mess, certainly, but one thing still didn't add up.

"So why now? Why us?" Sanji looked at Law. "It seems like you've got a pretty cushy gig with Doflamingo and if you've been there since you were a kid…why betray him?"

"Because…" Law started, though his words were cut off by the rather shrill ringing of a phone.

Shanks huffed an irritated-sounding breath and pulled it out of his pocket, glancing at the screen.

"Trouble?" Mihawk asked, sounding marginally concerned for the first time since Sanji had met him.

"They need assistance at one of the shoots, so I guess I'd better go," he slid off of Mihawk's lap. "Take a break, kids; I know we just piled a shit-ton of information on you, but it's not quite over," he gave them a smile that Sanji thought was supposed to be reassuring, but in light of everything he'd just heard, it was hard to feel okay about anything that was happening.

Law got up the moment Shanks left the room, hurrying out with his hands in his pockets and his head down, and Sanji was up and following him before he even realized his feet were moving.

The door to the nearby men's washroom was swinging, which was as good as clue as any to where Law had disappeared to, and Sanji pushed it open and strode inside to find the older man gripping the counter and looking like he was going to be sick.

"Law?"

"Fuck," Law took a deep breath and stood up. "I suppose it's finally hitting me that I can't go back now. I'm a dead man walking. He's got eyes everywhere, he'll know…"

"He won't know," Sanji shook his head, though honestly he had no idea if that was true or not.

"And now I've dragged you into this," Law took a hesitant step forward, looking like he was about to collapse.

"It's okay."

Law's eyes snapped up and Sanji half-turned, not even having heard Ace enter behind him.

"How is it okay?"

"Because we're not gonna let anything happen to you," he vowed. "Obviously we don't know the whole story yet, but if I'm reading this right…the reason you decided to try and bring this asshole down instead of trying to recruit us is because you like us…or you like Sanji, anyway," he teased, and from the blush on Law's cheeks he couldn't really deny that.

"My intentions aren't entirely altruistic," Law admitted softly. "But yes, the thought of any of you being pulled into his thrall after you'd been so incredibly accommodating and kind to me here…I couldn't live with that."

"Then don't worry about it," Ace propped his elbow up on Sanji's shoulder and leaned against him. "I've known Shanks since I was a kid, and he's not the kind of guy that's gonna let anybody take the fall if he can help it."

Sanji blinked, because this was news to him, but Ace didn't seem like he was about to elaborate so he stored it away as something to ask later

Law didn't look entirely reassured at the words, but eventually he nodded. "Well, I suppose we should go back…I've still got quite a bit of information to…" He paused when Ace reached out and grabbed his shoulder. "Yes?"

"Stop being so fucking formal," Ace yanked him off-balance, pulling him into a kiss, and Sanji could literally see Law's body relax into it. "We don't hate you," Ace said quietly, almost too soft for Sanji to hear from where he was standing.

Law's hands were clenched into fists at his sides, but he relaxed a little and wrapped his arms around Ace's shoulders at the words. "Thank you. Though you have every right to…"

"Yeah. Maybe," ace conceded, stepping back. "But we _want_ to help."

"We do," Sanji agreed, shrugging one shoulder.

Law's smile was a little more genuine this time when he turned to Sanji, but he still looked wary to move closer so Sanji sighed and stepped toward the other man.

"It's okay," he promised. "Trust me, if you want to touch me, I'm hardly going to complain."

Law let out a shaky breath and curled his arm around Sanji's waist, though his body was back to being tense.

"Hey," Ace looked up, a gleam in his dark eyes that Sanji didn't particularly like. "After this meeting…come back to Sanji's with us. I mean, we _did_ do an entire shoot to get you to show up here again, so it'd be a shame if you never saw it…"

"Oh, God," Sanji turned his face into Law's shoulder, because the thought of being _with_ Law when he watched it was more than a little embarrassing.

"We'll invite Kaku, too, and…"

"I'd love to," Law wrapped both arms around Sanji now, resting his chin on the blond's hair.

"He'll cook…"

"Can you stop volunteering my apartment and my food?" Sanji wasn't actually annoyed, but he didn't lift his head up because he was certain his cheeks were beet-red. "Fine, fine. Just don't expect too much from the video," he mumbled into Law's hoodie.

"Sanji, from seeing your…ah…previous work, I think I can safely say it'll be wonderful," Law sounded sheepish now, something that made Sanji feel a little better.

"Oh, it was," Ace sounded smug and Sanji peeked one eye open to glare at him. "He's gonna watch it anyway."

"I…this is probably true," Law admitted, one hand absently running down Sanji's back. "But if it truly makes you uncomfortable…"

"It's okay," Sanji moved back a little, not willing to break the embrace yet. "But we should probably go back in there."

"Yes," Law leaned closer, pressing his lips to Sanji's forehead in a gesture that somehow felt far more intimate than anything they'd done so far. "Thank you both."

"Of course," Ace laid a comforting hand on Law's shoulder. "You can trust us, man. We're here for you."

"I'm beginning to see that," Law sighed, sounding utterly resigned. "I don't trust many people, but with you both….it's easy," he finally let go of Sanji, though he stopped by the bathroom door and waited for both of them before heading back out into the hallway.

Sanji followed him back into the boardroom, seeing that Shanks was back and in a rather heated discussion with Mihawk about something (though, Sanji thought with a smirk, he couldn't be _too_ angry since he was back in the other man's lap), and when they sat down again he reached to give Law's hand a squeeze and got a tiny smile in return.

He knew, and maybe he'd known since the meeting began, that he'd do anything to help Law, even if it fucked him over in the end.

All he could do now was trust that it wouldn't.

 **Notes**

 **1.** The plot ended up too long for one chapter so I had to cut it off here! I'm a little nervous about this chapter because there's a lot of plot to get through, but I hope that it makes sense and, rest assured, there's still going to be smut involved with this fic ;)

 **2.** As always, thank you all so much for the comments/reviews/encouragement!


	11. Chapter 11

**Title:** Control  
 **Author:** kikokus (AoiTsukikage)  
 **Rating:** NC-17  
 **Characters/Pairing:** Ace/Law/Sanji in all combinations, side Marco/Ace, Sanji/others  
 **Chapter:** 11/?  
 **Word Count:** 3543  
 **Summary:** In which Sanji and Ace are models for a BDSM site and Law's the new guy doing his first shoot (Dom!Ace, sub!Sanji-and-Law)

 **Chapter Eleven**

"I know it's been a long day for all of us, so I won't keep you guys much longer," Shanks promised once all of them were seated and he'd wrapped up whatever he and Mihawk had been speaking about. "I guess what we need from you right now, Law, is a list of Doflamingo's people currently working here so we can keep a closer eye on them…and, more than that, if you have any idea how so many of them slipped past us without us noticing they have some sort of common association."

"Well, when the person in charge of employee records is one of the Family, it becomes a lot easier to both hide information and scout out potential new employees to try and coerce into doing their dirty work," Law had a grim smile on his face and Shanks blinked at him for a few seconds.

"But the only people with access to records are the three of us, and…"

"The front desk girl, yes," Law nodded, and Sanji remembered the strange girl in the spiral glasses who'd seemed overly agitated lately. "Monet is one of Doflamingo's most trusted minions…from what I hear, he took her and her younger sister in when they were in a bad situation, so she's unflinchingly loyal."

"Well, that explains it," Mihawk muttered dryly. "Who else?"

"Right now, just Baby and Violet…and…" Law took a deep breath and his grip on Sanji's hand became almost painful. "Vergo," he muttered, and the look on Shanks' face became so murderous that Sanji was almost afraid of him.

"That's it. I'm firing him," he stood up but Mihawk grabbed his wrist, stopping him from moving. "Dracule, all we ever get is complaints, and…"

"It'll look too suspicious to fire him now, much as I agree he's overstepped his boundaries one too many times," Mihawk frowned. "He's never explicitly broken any company rules, though he's come far too close for my liking as well."

"That call I just got was for his shoot," Shanks sat back down, though his body remained tense. "Some of the camera guys thought he was being too rough."

"If it…I know you can't fire him," Law's voice was a little unsteady and Sanji gripped his hand with both of his own. "He's…fuck. Sorry."

"Law," Marco said gently, and Law looked up. "You don't have to tell us. But it's obvious we need to keep a very close eye on him especially."

Law took a relived breath, sinking back into his chair. "Regardless, if you're looking for a way in…Violet would be your best bet. Baby might be swayed since she seems to change her loyalty based on who needs her more at any given moment, but Violet's…her real name is Viola Riku," he explained.

"Riku?" Lucci leaned forward. "Is she…"

"Yes, that business transaction a few years ago where Doflamingo bought out her father's company…he blackmailed them into it somehow. She's only working for him because he threatened her family and her younger niece, so her loyalty to Doflamingo is flimsy at best," he continued.

"Well, it's as good a place as any," Kalifa nodded. "I'll make sure her next shoot is with me and see what I can do."

"In the meantime, just keep your eyes and ears open," Mihawk glanced around the room. "The three of us," he gestured to Marco and Shanks, "will discuss what more we can do and get that information out to all of you if we feel it's necessary."

"Any other questions?" Marco looked bored again, but Sanji had been wondering something for a while so he decided to speak up.

"Yeah. Why involve Ace and I? Obviously Law's your informant and if CP9's here to stop this sort of thing it makes sense they know, but we're just employees," he pointed out.

"But you're loyal," Shanks gave him a kind smile. "I've known Ace since he was a kid, and Luffy even longer than that. You two are two of the only people at this site I know have no ulterior motives: you're just here because you want to be."

"You know when Monet saw your names with mine on the schedule she told me to not even try to recruit you," Law mentioned.

"Yeah, well, she was right," Ace grinned. "And I guess scheduling's the one thing she's got no say in, right? Or else she would have tried to put you with somebody else."

"I'm glad she didn't," Law was looking directly at Sanji now and Sanji knew he was probably blushing, but honestly, he was thinking the exact same thing.

000

"Ace kind of volunteered my place so it's not like I've got much food here," Sanji pushed open the door to his apartment, shifting the pizza boxes around and heading for the table. Ace had basically jumped on Kaku to invite him as soon as the meeting was over, and while Lucci seemed disapproving, Kaku reminded the older ma that Law was, in fact, a medical student so he was in good hands should his injury need any sort of attention.

They'd decided to get take-out instead of making Sanji cook, both because Sanji actually _was_ low on supplies and because he was too nervous about showing the video to Law to concentrate on making anything fancy.

"I'll get it set up," Ace dashed off to grab Sanji's laptop and Sanji rolled his eyes, setting the boxes on the table.

"Well, dig in."

Kaku immediately grabbed a piece, and leaned against the counter, glancing around the apartment like he was trying to memorize it. Law took a seat at the table and opened his own container of food, a pasta dish that Sanji admittedly thought looked pretty good (Law had mumbled something about 'not liking bread' so Sanji had told him to order whatever he wanted, and while it might have been pathetic, he was already trying to come up with recipes that didn't use bread to make for the other man).

He took some pizza for himself, watching as Ace scrambled around the living room trying to hook the computer up to the TV. "Hey," he looked at Kaku, who regarded him curiously. "Take as much pizza as you think you're gonna eat since if you leave any lying around where the human vacuum cleaner can get to it, it'll be gone before you can even blink."

"I heard that!" Ace yelled from behind the television set, but Sanji noticed that Kaku did indeed take a couple more slices and, sure enough, ten seconds later the rest of the pizza was in Ace's stomach. "We're good! Let's go," he tugged on Sanji's wrist.

"Let us eat first," Sanji snatched his arm back. "Not all of us can inhale food the way you and Luffy can."

Ace pouted, slinking away to sit on the couch, and he stayed there sulking until the three of them had finished.

"Can I get you guys anything else? Something to drink?" Sanji asked, hovering behind the sofa.

Law and Kaku both looked as nervous as he felt and they both declined, though Sanji could tell from the look Ace was giving all of them that he didn't feel the same.

Sanji wandered around to the front of the sofa, plopping down between Kaku and Law. "Okay. Let's get this over with."

"Jeez, I'm not torturing you guys," Ace sniffed, reaching to start the video, and Sanji wondered if it was possible for the couch cushions to swallow him up entirely because that was what he really wanted to happen.

It didn't, of course, but he still wished for it.

000

"So."

"Are we going to stop and discuss after every scene?" Kaku asked softly. Sanji noticed that he was staring at the screen through his fingers while Law was apparently engrossed in studying the ceiling.

"We could," Ace shrugged. "But it's obvious none of you are enjoying yourselves when this is supposed to be fun, so why bother going any further?" he looked a little guilty. Sanji reached across Law to pat his leg, shaking his head. "I mean, we've only gotten through the opening interview and none of you are even watching."

"Sorry. I know you're…totally fine with everything you do at the site, but the rest of us…it's not quite the same out of the moment," Sanji mumbled,

"I should go," Law didn't look at any of them as he stood up, brushing Sanji's arm aside and going to grab his coat.

"Are you gonna disappear again?" Sanji asked the words as lazily as possible, even though he really shouldn't have expected anything else.

"I…" Law stopped, draping his coat over one of the kitchen chairs and walking slowly back over. "No. But I don't see any reason to stay."

"You can leave if you want," Ace sighed, leaning against the back of the couch. "This was a bad idea anyway."

"Maybe we're taking it too seriously," Kaku put in, curling himself up in the corner of the couch. "I mean, the three of us had no issues watching it while we were editing…"

"Because we spent the entire time making jokes," Ace pointed out, and Kaku nodded.

"Exactly. Law's hardly a stranger to the industry at this point, so why is it so different tonight?" he looked between all of them and Sanji had to concede that he had a point.

"Maybe we're just all still processing the shit from this afternoon and can't concentrate on loosening up right now," Ace suggested, and if even _he_ was still hung up on it, chances were that all of them had the same thing on their minds.

"Then why don't we wait until tomorrow?" Sanji stood up, stretching his arms over his head. "You're all welcome to crash here if you want and borrow whatever…I'll cook breakfast and then we can watch," he figured that he _did_ owe Law one meal, at least, but he wasn't sure how the older man would take the suggestion of staying the night.

"You're sure?" Kaku blinked, looking surprised at the offer. "I mean, it'd be easier if we didn't have to leave, but I don't want to intrude."

"Trust me, you're not intruding," Sanji leaned down to pat his shoulder. "Law? Gonna stay? I mean, unless you have somewhere to be…" he paused, giving Law a way out that he could take, but to his surprise the older man shook his head and walked back toward the couch.

"No. I…thank you," he said, still looking rather uncomfortable. "I promise I won't be any trouble."

"Trust me, this guy and his brother probably cause as much trouble as twenty regular people so I don't think I've got anything to worry about," he winked at Ace, who gave a rather exaggerated sigh but didn't really say anything to dispute it…not that he could, really, since it was the truth.

"Well, I'm gonna take a shower," Ace announced after a few moments of silence, hopping up and racing into the bedroom, and Sanji went to clean up the empty dinner boxes from the kitchen.

When he looked back Law had disconnected the laptop from the television and was idly flicking channels while conversing quietly with Kaku.

He still didn't look fully at ease, but at least he was making an effort,…and, at the moment, that was all Sanji could really ask for.

000

"Oh! Sorry," Sanji stopped in the doorway, averting his eyes since Law was in the process of changing. He wasn't sure why he was embarrassed, considering he'd seen Law naked before, but it was different outside of the studio.

"It's fine," Law stood up, pulling the borrowed t-shirt down and looking a little self-conscious. It fit him well enough, though the pyjama pants Sanji had lent him were a little short.

"I'm just gonna take these in for Ace," Sanji gestured toward the bathroom, carrying some towels in and leaving them on the counter for when the other man was done with his shower.

Law was sitting on the bed when he came out, running his hand lightly over the blankets.

"You don't have to stay," Sanji sat down beside him, not too close, because Law still seemed liable to run off at any second (though, Sanji had to admit, the sight of Law in his clothes was hardly an unpleasant one).

"I…want to," Law blinked, almost like he'd surprised himself with the words. "Besides, the promise of your cooking is a rather large incentive," he smiled then, obviously teasing, and Sanji reached over to lightly shove his shoulder.

Law chuckled softly, shaking his head, and Sanji watched him for a few seconds before speaking again. "Hey. Can I ask you something?"

"Of course," Law shrugged, leaning back against the pillows and finally seeming to let his body relax. "What is it?"

"Before…you said that you chose to come to the studio because it was kind of the least questionable choice Doflamingo gave you," he began, waiting for Law's nod of acquiescence to continue. "So that means…you likely wouldn't have ever come otherwise."

"That's probably true," Law conceded, and Sanji sighed heavily. "What?"

"Just…you should never be forced into something like that, you know? You should _want_ to try it," he looked away. "So I'm sorry you didn't have a choice."

"Sanji," Law leaned forward, his hand closing lightly around the blond's wrist. Sanji glanced back at him, waiting. "I might never have gone by myself, but that…doesn't mean I didn't have an interest in the subject matter. It was hardly as if I were unwilling, after all," his smile was a little sheepish now but Sanji remembered how eager and accommodating he'd been and felt a little better. "I enjoyed it. Thoroughly. I assure you that," he let go of Sanji's wrist and Sanji felt himself almost immediately missing his touch.

"I'm glad to hear that," Sanji said honestly. "It certainly seemed like you enjoyed yourself, but I still wanted to be sure, y'know?"

"I appreciate that," Law took a deep breath before flopping his arm out to the side, looking at Sanji almost expectantly. "Do you want…"

Sanji didn't even let him finish before he scrambled closer, settling his body beside Law and turning so that he was lying partially on the other man's shoulder. Law's arm came around his back, holding him in place, and it still amazed Sanji somehow how easily their bodies fit together.

It was horribly cliché, probably, but he couldn't bring himself to care all that much.

"I'm sorry I couldn't…explain more at the meeting today. About Vergo," Law whispered. Sanji shook his head, nuzzling against Law's neck and holding him tighter.

"No. It's obvious that it's…upsetting to you, so if you don't want to talk about it, I understand," he promised. Of course he was curious, because it was natural to be, but Law had seemed terrified and Sanji didn't want to dredge up those memories if Law wasn't up to talking about them.

"Okay," Law breathed out slowly. "Just…promise me you'll never work with him."

"I think, after today, there's no way any of the admins would _let_ me work with him," Sanji pointed out. "But I promise."

"Good," Law burrowed his nose into Sanji's hair.

"Aw, don't you two look comfortable!" Ace stuck his head out of the washroom and then came out completely, wearing only a towel around his waist. "What're we doing for sleeping arrangements? All of us in the bed?"

"You know the couch is a sofa-bed, right?" Sanji raised an eyebrow and Ace sighed rather dramatically.

"It's uncomfortable as fuck. And you wouldn't put a guy recovering from a gunshot wound on a _sofa-bed,_ would you?" he gave Sanji his most innocent wide-eyed expression as Sanji tried not to laugh.

"How about you let said guy speak for himself," Kaku leaned against the doorway, glancing around the room. "I'm not sure all of us will fit in there, besides…"

"We'll fit," Ace had seemingly decided this, at least until his smile turned sly and he leered at Law and Sanji. "Unless these two want some _privacy…"_

Law stiffened and Sanji patted his side, giving Ace a rather pointed look. "No, we don't need privacy. And put some pants on, at least."

Ace rolled his eyes but went to Sanji's dresser to pull out a pair of shorts, sliding them on before taking the towel back into the bathroom and then proceeding to dive onto the bed.

"Kaku, man, at least borrow some pajamas," he called, and Kaku stuffed his hands in the pockets of his hoodie, looking unsure. "Seriously, Ace has decided my clothes are meant to be shared so grab whatever you want," he gestured vaguely in the direction of the dresser.

Kaku nodded in thanks and crossed over to the drawer, grimacing a little as he bent down and pulled out a t-shirt and a pair of pajama pants.

"Should I take a look at your dressing?" Law asked quietly, easing himself away from Sanji and standing up.

"It would probably be a good idea," Kaku conceded, giving Law a half-smile before heading into the washroom as Law followed him.

Ace waited a grand total of two seconds before flopping onto Sanji and looking up at him expectantly. "Are you _sure_ you don't want to spend some time alone with Law?"

"I'm sure," Sanji rolled his eyes. "I'm amazed we got him to stay at all, honestly."

"What's there to be afraid of?" Ace pushed himself up a little. "I mean, you've already fucked, so…"

"You should know there's a difference between doing something for a shoot and doing it just because you want to," he frowned, though that hardly seemed to slow Ace down.

"You like each other. That's pretty obvious by now," Ace sat up, leaning against Sanji's shoulder, and his tone was markedly more serious. "I only want you to be happy, Sanji."

"I know," Sanji patted the other man's leg. "Right now I'm just happy that he came back at all, so I don't want to push my luck by coming on too strong. He's dealing with a lot of shit, and I've got a feeling we don't know the half of it yet," he sighed.

"Yeah," Ace conceded, nuzzling his nose against Sanji's neck. "We're gonna find a way to help him," he vowed, and Sanji smiled.

"Of course we are," he glanced up again when Law and Kaku came out of the washroom, the latter adjusting his shirt and giving Sanji a tiny smile.

"Everything okay?" Sanji asked, patting the bed beside him, and Kaku clambered on and leaned back against the headboard.

"It looks fine," Law answered, hovering near the end of the bed and eventually setting his hands on his hips. "I'll take the sofa-"

"Get in here," Ace slid over so that there was room between him and Sanji and Law, after heaving a resigned sigh, complied. "I already told you that we're not gonna abandon you."

"I believe you," Law murmured, sinking down a little in the bed and hunching his shoulders.

"Then stop acting like we're strangers," Ace pulled the covers back and lay down, tugging Law down with him and kissing him rather insistently.

Law made a low sound in his throat before returning the kiss, hands tangling in Ace's shaggy hair, and Sanji watched them with a fond smile.

He lay down properly himself after a few seconds, watching Kaku carefully as the older man eased himself onto his good side.

"Hey. You gonna be alright?" he asked, hooking his chin over Kaku's shoulder and setting a hand on his hip.

"I'll be fine as long as you lot don't roll on top of me or something," Kaku chuckled.

"Well, with Ace I can't make any promises, but I'll be your shield," Sanji grinned, kissing his cheek and getting a sleepy hum in return.

"You're so mean to me, babe," Ace had apparently stopped making out with Law and was currently pouting, even though Sanji knew he wasn't actually offended. "I'm going to sleep," he announced, turning over to face the wall, and Sanji realized Ace had taken the outside on purpose so that he and Law were together in the middle of the bed.

He heard a snore from the other side of Law and shook his head, because of course Ace had already fallen asleep. Law rolled to face him, something hesitant in his golden eyes, and Sanji reached up to turn off the lamp above the bed, leaving the room in near-darkness.

Law's arm settled hesitantly around his waist, the tension in his body palpable, so Sanji moved closer and cuddled up to his chest.

"It's okay," he murmured. "If you want to…"

Law wrapped him up a little tighter then, kissing his forehead, and Sanji let his eyes close.

He could tell Law was still awake by the time he fell asleep, the other man's embrace still not entirely comfortable, but Sanji had to trust he wouldn't run away in the middle of the night.

He didn't have much hope, all things considered, but he still had to.

Maybe this time Law wouldn't let him down.

 **Notes:**

 **1.** I had fully intended for them to watch the video during the chapter but it didn't feel right when I was writing it so plans changed…though I promise it'll happen next time

 **2.** As always, thank you all so much for the comments and reviews! They motivate me a lot, so please feel free to leave one if you're so inclined :)


	12. Chapter 12

**Title:** Control  
 **Author:** kikokus (AoiTsukikage)  
 **Rating:** NC-17  
 **Characters/Pairing:** Ace/Law/Sanji in all combinations, side Marco/Ace, Sanji/others  
 **Chapter:** 12/?  
 **Word Count:** 3375  
 **Summary:** In which Sanji and Ace are models for a BDSM site and Law's the new guy doing his first shoot (Dom!Ace, sub!Sanji-and-Law)

 **Chapter Twelve**

Even though he'd been expecting it, it was still a disappointment to wake up and find Law gone.

It wasn't morning yet, but Sanji could tell immediately from the lack of warmth directly near him that the other man had disappeared.

Ace was snoring like a chainsaw, sleeping deeply, though Sanji guessed from how rigid Kaku's back was against his own that the other man was awake.

"Sanji?"

"Hey," Sanji rolled over, hugging him from behind. "Can't sleep?"

"I was until Law got out of bed," Kaku murmured, glancing back over his shoulder. "He's on the balcony."

Sanji blinked, honestly surprised that Law was still there, but the balcony wasn't exactly the best place to be in the middle of the night so he figured it would probably be a good idea to get Law back inside.

It was warm under the blankets, however, and the night air was cold, so he nuzzled into Kaku's shoulder for a few seconds while he worked up the nerve to leave the bed.

Kaku laughed softly, reaching back to pat his side. "Go, Sanji, I'll be here when y' get back."

"Warm," Sanji grumbled, but he finally slid himself out from under the blankets and stumbled over to the balcony door, pushing it open and shivering when a blast of cold night air hit him.

Law hadn't bothered to put on a coat or even a sweater and was staring down toward the harbor, arms crossed over his chest. He was trembling, goosebumps lining his bare arms.

Sanji wasn't sure if his presence would be welcome, but he was too fucking soft-hearted to _not_ do anything. He took a step closer, leaning his shoulder against Law's and sliding his arm around the other man's waist. "Hey."

Law hugged him close immediately, something that prompted Sanji to let his breath out in a rush of relief.

"It's fucking cold out here. Come back in," Sanji mumbled against his shoulder. Law didn't move, still staring straight ahead, but his body was warm enough that Sanji could ignore the chilly wind. "Law?"

"I suppose it's hitting me how fucked I am," Law murmured, Sanji pressing his body closer in response. "I know I said that losing my tuition money was a small price to pay for being free of that man, but the truth is…I lose _everything_. I hate to admit it, but I owe him a lot for keeping me alive all of these years. If he finds out, I'm dead, but if somebody _does_ manage to unearth enough evidence to take him down, I'll have nothing."

Sanji listened in silence, unsure of what to say. He couldn't exactly be reassuring when he knew almost nothing of Law's situation, after all.

"You won't be alone," he finally whispered, since that was one thing he _could_ give Law. "You've got us, now. We're not going to abandon you."

"Even though I could very well be putting you in danger? If he finds out you've all been helping me…"

"Like Ace said back at the studio, we _want_ to help you," he promised, feeling Law's arms tighten even more.

"You hardly know me," Law murmured, and Sanji had to concede that was true, since really all he knew was what Law had told them that afternoon.

"I'm pretty fucking good at reading people, Trafalgar, and I believe you're not trying to hurt us," he said firmly. "I don't need to know your life's story if you don't want to tell me."

"Maybe one day," Law murmured softly into Sanji's hair, though the deep breath he took after those words let Sanji know how little he was looking forward to even the idea of it. "I do…owe you one explanation though. Not about my past, but…"

"Law, seriously, if you don't want to…"

"I lied," Law spoke over him and Sanji blinked, because that statement by itself told him less than nothing.

"You…"

"At the shoot. I lied to you. About…almost everything," he murmured, though Sanji didn't feel any less in the dark. "I've never been fucked before. I've barely fooled around with anybody before. All of that was brand new for me."

The words hung awkwardly in the air between them, Law's breath turning harsh and fast and Sanji could feel the warmth of it against his skin in the cold air.

"You…" was all he could manage, speaking through a mouth that was suddenly bone-dry.

Because if that was true…then…

"But you said…"

"I know what I said," Law chuckled ruefully. "But I didn't want either of you to go easy on me or treat me as if I were fragile."

"Holy shit," Sanji let out a tiny, breathless laugh, because he still didn't quite know how to react…besides the part of him that was gloating rather loudly to his brain about him being Law's first. "No wonder you fucking shut down."

Thinking back, it made sense: Law's stilted, hesitant answers to the opening interview about his past experience, how tense he was, that he only really detached when somebody was fingering him…

At the time Sanji had written it off as nerves, but now…

"Law, I…"

"No," Law said firmly. "I wanted it. All of it. I wouldn't have agreed to let you…if I hadn't felt safe with you," he said quietly, and Sanji knew how huge that was, since by all accounts Law had spent a great deal of his life feeling _un_ safe. "I'm not the kind of person that cares much about sex, honestly. I've never wanted a relationship or sought out somebody to fool around with, but when Doflamingo mentioned this as a way to kind of…earn my keep, as it were…I was surprised by how quickly I warmed to the idea. I did a lot of research, looked at it from every angle I could, and decided that as far as getting my first true sexual experiences went, being in a controlled environment where nobody would expect anything of me after the fact was about as perfect as I could wish for," he spoke quickly and softly, but it was about the most Sanji had ever heard him say at once.

It was still hard to process, maybe, since Law hadn't seemed apprehensive about most of what they'd done, but maybe that was just how he was.

"I…" he paused, not even knowing what to say. "Uh. Well. If I'd have known it was your first time, I would have made it a lot better. I feel like I owe you for that," he laughed, realizing what he'd said a moment later and groaning. "Not that…fuck, that wasn't some sort of come-on…I mean if you wanted…"

"Sanji," Law kissed him, which was probably the best way to shut him up. He closed his eyes, pressing his body against Law's and sliding his hands up the other man's back. "Not that I would say no…" Law was breathless when he pulled away, and there was something utterly serious in his eyes that made Sanji's breath catch. "Sorry. Fuck. I'm horrible at this, it's why I've avoided relationships until now."

"Hey," Sanji forced himself to relax, hugging Law tightly. "Thank you for telling me. I just wish your first time could have been better."

And yeah, the thought of just…him and Law…on a real bed…with nothing between them but skin...

He gulped, knowing he was probably blushing deeply enough to be seen even in the dim light reaching the balcony, but he didn't think anybody could _blame_ him.

"I wasn't…purely unprepared, you know. I've…" Law coughed and Sanji glanced up. "I…experimented before I went with…toys," he sighed, though Sanji thought that was a good thing since it meant Law would be at least used to the feeling, though the mental image he got of Law doing that wasn't helping his current state any.

"Hey, seriously, d'you want us to leave you two alone?"

Sanji whirled around, blinking in the suddenly-bright light coming from the bedroom, and while he'd normally be annoyed at Ace for breaking the moment, this time it was probably for the best because things were getting far too heavy for his liking and the chance of him doing or saying something horribly embarrassing to Law was going up by the second.

Ace was half-leaning over Kaku, his chin resting on the older man's shoulder, and Kaku rolled his eyes.

"I should tell him, shouldn't I?' Law whispered, sounding a little apprehensive.

"Yeah," Sanji conceded, since Ace probably had as much of a right to know as he did. "Seriously, it's Ace, you don't have to be afraid," he chuckled, getting a tiny nod from Law. "And it's still fucking cold out here, so c'mon."

He tugged on Law's wrist, finally coercing him back inside and closing the patio door so no more cold air could get in. Law was hunched in on himself again as he crossed to the bed, settling himself beside Ace and clearing his throat.

"What's up?" Ace sat up, reaching for Law's hand and running his fingers soothingly over the back of it until Law uncurled his fingers and allowed the other man to grasp it properly. "You can tell me."

"I know," Law sighed, finally beginning to speak in a low voice.

Sanji watched Ace as Law told a rather condensed version of what he'd relayed to Sanji out on the balcony, but Sanji was betting that was just because Law probably didn't feel much like talking anymore. Ace's brow furrowed as Law spoke before his eyes widened a little, lips parting in surprise.

"I didn't hurt you, did I?" was the first thing he'd said once Law had finished, though that only received a slow, confused blink from the older man. "I…fuck, when I had you up on that…rack-thing and I was fingering you…that's when you completely shut down. Was that because…"

"If I had to say so, yes," Law sighed deeply. "And no, you didn't…you both were extremely thorough."

"For the record," Kaku cleared his throat, easing himself up into a sitting position. "I've edited…a shit-ton of videos for the site in the few years I've worked there, and if you hadn't've said anything, I never would have guessed your level of inexperience."

"Hmm?" Law blinked at him, like he'd forgotten Kaku was there at all. "Oh. Well. I tried to hide it as best I could…"

"Trust me, like I've told Sanji many time, people like you 'n him are gifts," he chuckled. "And maybe because it was your first time, you just let your body react naturally, but that gives us much a better show than the guys that think being over-the-top is sexy."

"Especially when it's the opposite," Ace snickered. "But seriously, I'm glad you told us."

"I felt I owed you the truth about that, at least, even if I'm not ready to tell you everything about my past yet," he shrugged, going willingly when Ace tilted his jaw to kiss him.

Sanji sat down beside Kaku, snuggling up to his side because he was still cold from being out on the balcony. "Honestly, if you two _do_ want to be alone, just say the word," Kaku murmured into his hair. "I'm quite sure Ace and I can occupy ourselves for a while."

"I appreciate the offer, but no," Sanji leaned his head on the other man's shoulder, knowing that while Ace was mostly teasing when he asked that question, Kaku was far more genuine.

"Mm, we should sleep more…it's the middle of the night," Ace yawned, stretching his arms over his head before he draped them around Law's neck to kiss him again.

Law didn't seem to mind, hands settled on Ace's hips as he let Ace guide him backwards until he was lying down, never breaking the kiss.

"I don't think Ace would be _able_ to leave you two alone," Kaku chuckled.

"I'd be fucking jealous of them," Ace replied, lifting his head up briefly before he blinked down at Law. "And maybe I'm assuming, but since you said you had no interest in relationships…"

"I don't, particularly…" Law shrugged, running his hands up to tangle in Ace's hair. "I hadn't exactly considered this situation as a viable option, but…"

"Cool," Ace grinned at him. "I mean, Sanji and I have always said that we'd back off of each other if one of us got into a serious relationship, but the way I see it, if everybody's fine with it, what's the harm?"

Law nodded slowly, glancing over at Sanji. "I suppose that's a good point."

"And obviously, working in this profession, you're going to be intimate with more than one person on at least a semi-regular basis," Kaku pointed out. "It's much better if you're not prone to jealousy."

"Well, I can't say I have any…previous experience with relationships, but…" he was cut off by Ace kissing him again and Sanji rolled his eyes, even though he had to admit that seeing two people he was obviously attracted to go at it was appealing in a lot of ways.

"Mm, gotta piss," Ace announced without any preamble, finally breaking the kiss and darting into the washroom. Law lay there blinking for a few seconds, his cheeks a little flushed, and Sanji stifled his laugh against Kaku's shoulder because he knew how good Ace was with his mouth.

Law eventually sat up, running a hand through his mussed hair and hesitating for only a moment before cuddling up close to Sanji's other side. It still wasn't quite natural for him to seek out touch, something Sanji could tell by the tenseness in his shoulders when he wrapped his free arm around them, but he _was_ making an effort.

"Hey. You still cold?" Sanji asks, rubbing Law's arm as the other man shrugged.

"A little. Admittedly, going outside wearing pajamas probably wasn't my best idea," he said dryly. "Though I do feel better."

"Good," Sanji kept trailing his fingers over the t-shirt Law was wearing, down over the bottom of the heart tattoo sticking out from under the sleeve and back up again.

Law gave a little hum low in his throat, eyes half-closing, and it was nice to see him finally start to relax a little. They could hear the toilet flush and the sink run before Ace came back out, flopping on Law's free side and spooning him from behind.

"Sleep?" he asked, and Sanji nods.

"Yeah," he reached up to turn the light off and somehow they all managed to get under the covers again, although this time Sanji didn't feel the need to hold Law _quite_ so tightly because he was finally convinced he wasn't going to run away.

000

"You can sleep more if you want."

"I'm a light sleeper," Kaku shrugged, hopping up onto one of the bar stools behind the breakfast counter. "I woke up as soon as I felt you leave the bed."

"Which is more can be said for those two," Sanji pointed a spatula toward the bedroom, although Law had seemed exhausted so Sanji couldn't blame him. Ace slept like a log most of the time, completely oblivious to the world, so it was really no surprise that _he_ hadn't woken up. "Want coffee? Tea?"

"I wouldn't say no to tea," Kaku admitted, which suited Sanji just fine since he was going to make some for himself regardless. "What's on your breakfast menu?"

"Well, since Law doesn't like bread," he clicked his tongue, looking in the fridge. "I'm thinking some sort of egg scramble with cheese and whatever vegetables I've got, and maybe toast on the side," he chuckled, pulling out the ingredients. "Nothing fancy."

"Sounds fancy enough t' me," Kaku spun around on the stool. "Thanks again for letting us stay."

"Nah, you guys're no trouble at all," Sanji waved a hand idly, leaning back against the counter. "I don't mind company as long as it's not _loud_ company, and you and Law at least fit that criteria."

"Well, true enough," Kaku conceded with a small chuckle, turning his head a second before Law emerged from the bedroom, sleep-tousled and bleary-eyed.

"Hey!" Sanji grinned, trying not to look too excited as he went to start the tea. "Sleep well?"

"Yes, actually," Law stretched his arms over his head, yawning a little. "I was going to ask if I can use your shower."

"Of course. Use whatever you want, I'll find some clean towels and bring them to you in a few minutes," he got the water for the tea starting to heat up and moved to work on chopping up some vegetables for the scramble.

"Thanks," Law gave him a tiny, awkward smile before disappearing back into the bedroom, and Sanji sighed.

"He's still got a ways to go," Kaku gave him a rather significant look that Sanji didn't quite know the meaning of, but there was really nothing more he could do to get Law to feel comfortable around them if he hadn't started already.

He cracked some eggs into a bowl, lost in his thoughts as he worked until he heard the tea kettle give a shrill whistle and realized that he'd better grab those towels before Law got out of the shower.

"I can get my own tea, lad. Go," Kaku was grinning now and Sanji realized he probably looked far too flustered for the task at hand, but he headed to the linen closet with a saunter he hoped looked at least had the illusion of looking casual.

It probably wouldn't fool Kaku, but at least he could feel better about himself.

000

"Law? I'm just gonna leave these on the counter, you can-" he stopped when Law stuck his head out from behind the curtain, looking more like a wet cat than anything else with his fluffy hair plastered down to his skull.

"I'm finished," Law disappeared for a moment behind the curtain and Sanji could hear the water turn off, and then there was silence for a little too long before Law pushed back the curtain in one long movement and reached for a towel, glancing up to briefly meet Sanji's eyes.

Sanji looked away, realizing a moment later that the reason Law had hesitated was probably because he was psyching himself up to do this and Sanji was acting like he didn't even want to look at him.

"Sorry. I thought…." Law huffed, wrapping a towel around his waist. "Fuck."

"No," Sanji moved forward, reaching out to rest his hands on Law's shoulders. "I think it's safe to say we're both shitty at this, but it's okay. Seriously, I don't think there are any boundaries left between me and Ace, so if you're good with…this…then why don't we just…try to not be so awkward and just do whatever feels right?" he suggested, unable to tell what Law was thinking until the older man pulled him close and leaned down to kiss him.

Sanji let out a tiny groan, sliding his hands down Law's back and shoving the towel aside so he could continue down to grip his ass. Law growled into his mouth, yanking Sanji bodily to him, and it probably would have gone a lot farther had there not been a knock on the door.

"Shit! I have to…breakfast…" he glanced down, cheeks going instantly red because Law was half-hard and _fuck,_ Sanji wanted him.

"Yes. You should," Law picked up the towel and re-wrapped it around his waist, picking up another one to dry his hair off.

Sanji tried to compose himself before he opened the door, though Ace took one look at him and raised an eyebrow knowingly.

"Shut up," Sanji brushed by him, Ace's laughter following him all the way to the kitchen, and he tried to ignore what had happened until Kaku looked up from his tea and mentioned, rather idly, "you know your clothes are wet," leaving Sanji wondering what he'd done to God or fate or whoever was out there to make them hate him so damn much.

Well, he thought as he started up the stove, at least he and Law were on the same page now.

That was definitely something to be thankful for.

 **Notes:**

 **1.** I'm sorry about the wait on this chapter! I was swamped between assignments at school and picking up extra hours at work.

 **2.** I promise they'll get to watching the video next chapter, but I thought it was important to kind of lay out where everybody stands relationship-wise in this fic!

 **3.** As always, feel free to leave a comment or review, and thank you all for the continued support :)


	13. Chapter 13

**Title:** Control  
 **Author:** kikokus (AoiTsukikage)  
 **Rating:** NC-17  
 **Characters/Pairing:** Ace/Law/Sanji in all combinations, side Marco/Ace, Sanji/others  
 **Chapter:** 13/?  
 **Word Count:** 3484  
 **Summary:** In which Sanji and Ace are models for a BDSM site and Law's the new guy doing his first shoot (Dom!Ace, sub!Sanji-and-Law)

 **Chapter Thirteen**

"Remember, don't take this too seriously," Kaku had another mug of tea cupped between his palms as he curled his lithe body into one corner of the couch, eyes bright and focused on the television screen. "And since I looked fucking ridiculous, that won't be too hard."

"You looked fucking _hot,"_ Ace countered, which caused Kaku to turn an interesting shade of red that managed to clash rather horribly with his hair.

"He's right," Sanji added, chuckling a little because Kaku was currently trying to hide behind his coffee cup - something that, with his nose, was proving rather impossible.

"Law, back us up here," 'Ace elbowed Law playfully and Law looked over at Kaku, giving a rather listless shrug before turning back to the screen.

Ace frowned, reaching to pause the video, and Kaku leaned forward and shook his head.

"It's fine. Law and I don't know each other that well and, quite frankly, I don't care if people find me attractive," he said the last line mostly into his teacup.

"It's not…that," Law said quietly, his eyes darting toward Kaku again. "I'm just…not accustomed to being so blunt when it comes to remarks about personal appearance."

"I mean, the most Ace and I ever got was 'very attractive'," Sanji pointed out, which caused Law to groan a little. "So I wouldn't be offended," he directed this to Kaku, who was smiling now.

"You know what I just realized…" Ace had a rather mischievous gleam in his eyes that Sanji wasn't sure what to think of, although he had a feeling he was about to find out. "For all we talked about being comfortable with watching this since we're all in the same industry and have done things on camera, none of us have ever seen you naked, Kaku. And that just doesn't seem fair, since you've definitely seen all of _us,"_ he was grinning widely now and Kaku looked up toward the ceiling as if praying for strength.

"You're not missing out on much," he eventually replied, the tone of his voice implying that was the end of that particular conversation.

Sanji felt Law shift beside him and suck in a tiny breath like he was about to say something, and after a few moments he surprisingly broke his silence instead of withdrawing like he normally would. "You haven't even seen him shirtless?"

"No," Ace shook his head.

"Mm," Law faced the TV again, the corners of his mouth barely twitching in a smile that he was trying to hide, and Ace just looked confused now. "You'll recall that the two of us went into the bathroom last night so I could take a look at his injury…"

" _And?"_ Ace was looking at Law with rapt attention now and Sanji had to stifle his laughter because while part of him was still a little incredulous that Law was joining in on the teasing, there was another that had the sense that Law could be a pretty big shit when he wanted to be and seeing that side of him was refreshing.

"And I think my 'very attractive' statement could be extended to all three of you," Law finished, still revealing absolutely nothing, though Sanji could tell by the furrow between Ace's brows that the other man was quickly losing patience with his evasiveness.

"Oh, for the love of…" Kaku huffed, setting the teacup aside and reaching to strip the borrowed t-shirt off. "There. Are we happy now?"

"Holy fuck!" was Ace's helpful contribution, and Sanji really _tried_ not to stare but it was hard because from what he could see there wasn't an inch of Kaku's body that wasn't made up of perfectly toned muscle. Sanji had known he was strong and almost inhumanly fast, but this spoke to another level of training entirely.

"I'm not taking my pants off," Kaku said firmly, though Sanji had a feeling Ace would be more than content with this for the moment.

"One day," was all Ace said before grinning and starting the video up again, and Sanji heard Kaku give a rather exaggerated sigh before he slid his shirt back on and settled himself a little more comfortably on the sofa.

Sanji forced himself to relax as well, trying to appear as casual as he could even though inwardly he was still a little embarrassed to be watching this outside of the studio, and just hoped the time would go quickly.

000

"How long did you leave him up there?"

"Hmm?" Kaku looked half asleep, which was something Sanji couldn't even fathom, but maybe that was his way of getting through this as painlessly as possible. The first scene hadn't been _too_ bad, thankfully, although Sanji had to admit he was still a little surprised at just how _quickly_ Kaku had gotten him to come apart.

Law, for his part, seemed mostly unaffected, and Sanji wasn't sure how to feel about that. Yeah, okay, maybe the dark tinge high on his cheeks was a blush, but it was impossible to tell from his carefully neutral expression just _what_ he was feeling.

"That…suspension at the end," Law clarified. "I mean, when we did a scene like that, it seemed like there were more ropes."

"Ah. That," Kaku nodded. "And yes, if the suspension lasts an entire scene, there would be for safety reasons and to put less strain on the body once gravity starts to take over," he explained. "We had you up there…maybe a minute?"

Sanji nodded, because it was hard to remember outside of the moment but he knew it hadn't been long. "As soon as the cameras stopped rolling," he agreed. "Although it was already starting to hurt a little."

"It's all about weighing dramatics versus safety," Ace broke in, completely serious now considering the topic. "We want things to look good, but like I told you at the shoot, we'd never compromise the safety of a performer to do it. Leaving somebody up in the air for thirty seconds or a minute isn't going to do any damage, but there's no way I'd ever do a long scene without a proper suspension harness."

"Mm," Law nodded, leaning back against the cushions and, after a second or two, moving to slide his arm around Sanji's shoulders. His posture was still stiff, like he was afraid Sanji would reject him somehow, so the blond turned toward him and let his head rest against Law's shoulders. "You, uh, look good," he said stiffly and Ace started to laugh.

"Seriously, man, what did I say about there being no boundaries here," he leaned on Law's other shoulder. "Of course he looks good. He always looks good."

Sanji rolled his eyes at that instead of replying, although for what it was worth, he knew Ace wasn't lying just to flatter him.

"And…" Law seemed to be building up his courage again before he looked over at Kaku. "After seeing that, I'm definitely applying my 'very attractive' statement to all three of you," he smiled a little and Kaku tried to hide behind his teacup again.

"Damn right," Ace leaned in front of them so he could reach over and clap his hand onto Kaku's knee. "We ready to keep going?" he asked after a few seconds and Kaku nodded gratefully, finally lowering the mug as Ace started the video up again.

Law didn't move his arm from around Sanji, and when the next scene came on, Sanji could feel him get tense again. "That…looks painful," he commented.

"It is," Sanji and Kaku said at almost the same time, Kaku shooting him a grin right after the words had left his mouth. "I mean, most people wouldn't be able to handle it," Kaku added, shifting himself so he was leaning more against Sanji's shoulder. "Sanji's probably the only person I'd even want to attempt that with."

Law nodded absently, his fingers skimming lightly over Sanji's back, though he let out a tiny murmur when they reached the part of the scene where Kaku was basically sitting on Sanji and somehow managing to keep his feet on the floor while bending the upper half of his body completely over.

"That's impressive," he noted, and Kaku's cheeks reddened a little as he shrugged off the compliment.

"I still think Sanji could give me a run for my money in the flexibility department," he chuckled, although Sanji himself was quite sure he'd lose that contest if they ever had it.

Kaku was damn near boneless, after all, and he wasn't _quite_ at that level.

Sanji glanced over at Ace as the scene continued, because normally he would have been all over that conversation, but the older man was staring rather blankly at the TV screen, his eyes unfocused. He shook his head after a few seconds, plastering a grin on his face and meeting Sanji's gaze, but the blond knew it was an act and he made a mental note to talk to Ace about it later.

He was so deep in thought that when Law's hand tightened on his shoulder he nearly jumped, though one look at the screen told him why since they'd gotten to the part of the scene where his body couldn't handle that positon anymore.

They'd tried to hide it in the edit as best they could, but since he'd gone completely rigid it was hard to do entirely, and Law had obviously picked up on it.

"It's okay," Sanji leaned back into his touch, looking up at him. "Just a muscle spasm."

"Thank you," Law directed that to Kaku, who looked confused, and the furrow on his brow deepened even farther when Law reached around Sanji to clasp his shoulder. "For recognizing right away that he needed to stop," he clarified, Sanji feeling a warmth bloom in the pit of his stomach because Law being so outwardly concerned for him was pretty damn nice.

"Of course," Kaku reached to pat Law's knee, grinning at him. "Y' don't think I'd actually want somebody to get _hurt,_ do you?" he leaned against Sanji again, seemingly fully relaxed now.

"No, but still…" Law's expression became more serious. "When I think about…somebody like Vergo…being allowed to be a dom at the site…" he shook his head. "And then I see you or Ace and how you work, there couldn't be more of a difference. I'm just…glad, I suppose, that people like you two are there."

"Well, we're happy to be there," Ace leaned against Law's other side, seemingly recovered from his earlier moment, though the smile on his face still didn't come anywhere near his eyes.

The others probably wouldn't notice since Ace was a master at faking how he really felt, but Sanji knew, and he reached around Law to squeeze Ace's shoulder.

"I don't understand how this Vergo guy can still be employed there if he's as bad as you say," Kaku mentioned. "I've edited some of his videos and he's…harsh, yes, but he never steps over the line, and I doubt any one of the admins would allow him to stay there if he had truly gone too far," he added.

"I don't think they would, either," Law finally admitted. "So perhaps he's being on his best behavior because he knows Doflamingo trusts him to be one of his ins to the site, but…" he sighed. "I'd rather not discuss it. Suffice to say that when somebody in Doflamingo's family does something he doesn't approve of, Vergo's usually the one brought in to…punish them. And I don't mean that in the pleasurable sense," he stated wryly, something about his tone so dry and dark that Sanji shivered even with the warmth of three people around him.

"Fuck," Kaku sat up a little, looking at Law with concern. He leaned over Sanji, framing the other man's face with his hands and leaning as close as his nose would allow him to. "Do you want me to tell the admins?" he asked quietly.

"No," Law's voice wasn't steady and Sanji nuzzled into his chest, feeling like Law needed the reassurance that all of them were there. "No, he's…we can't do anything that would seem suspicious. I just would really rather not run into him there."

"We'll make sure you don't," Kaku's voice was almost a growl and Sanji had never really felt like the other man was _dangerous_ before, but between his speed and his shrewd mind and the fact that he apparently could take a bullet without letting it slow him down, Sanji had a feeling Kaku had a lot of secrets yet.

They all did, really, and he'd be a hypocrite if he held that against any of them, so he filed that information away and just hoped he'd never do anything for Kaku to direct that cold anger toward him.

"Thank you," Law blinked, looking unsure, and Kaku chuckled. He didn't move back and Law didn't seem inclined to pull away, but there was a tension between them now that definitely hadn't existed only a few moments earlier.

"You can kiss him if you want," Ace put in, draped over Law's shoulders and watching them with interest. "I mean, Sanji and I have, so you might as well…"

"Your logic is infallible," Law replied dryly, though it seemed to be the push he needed and he tilted his head and closed the distance between himself and Kaku. "Be careful," he murmured when they parted, quiet enough that Sanji had to strain to hear it even though he was only a few inches away. "If Vergo gets any inkling that you're CP9…"

"He won't," Kaku promised. "And if he does, I promise that I'm far stronger than I look."

Law didn't look entirely convinced but he nodded, leaning back against the couch. "Should we continue?"

Kaku looked at all of them, his eyes narrowing a bit when he got to Ace. He cleared his throat and patted Law's leg, voice a little too bright when he spoke again. "I was thinking maybe we can get some lunch first? If there's a place nearby Law and I can go. It's the least we can do to thank you for letting us stay the night," he gave Sanji a rather pointed look, tilting his head subtly in Ace's direction, and Sanji knew what he was doing.

He should have expected it, since as an undercover agent Kaku would be adept at looking at people's body language and reactions, but Ace noticeably perked up at the mention of food and Sanji had a feeling he hadn't realized anybody else had caught his momentary mood slip.

"There's a sushi place just around the corner. They've got a lunch special," Sanji suggested, moving so that he wasn't lying on top of Law anymore. "You guys don't have to, though…"

"It's no trouble," Law's voice was carefully neutral in a way that meant Sanji couldn't tell if he'd noticed the same thing Kaku did, or if he could just infer from the other man's words that they needed to leave Ace and Sanji alone for a while, but either way Sanji knew both of them were far too perceptive for Ace to keep trying to hide from them. "I doubt it can compare to your food, but…"

"Hey, you only had breakfast," Sanji grinned. "Wait until I cook you dinner, Trafalgar. I'll blow your fucking mind."

"I think he wants you to blow something else," Ace muttered, staring at the ceiling and squawking when Sanji stretched his leg out and tapped his shoulder warningly with his foot. "How can you even _do_ that?"

"Easily, I'm sure," Kaku was heading to the bedroom, looking back over his shoulder and grinning. "We'll just get dressed and head out," he disappeared into the room.

Law stood up, stretching out his back a little before following Kaku into the bedroom, and it was only a few minutes before both of them came out dressed in the clothes they'd worn the night before.

"Any requests?" Kaku asked as he shrugged his jacket on, one hand reaching for the doorknob.

"Food," Ace helpfully supplied, but since Ace ate almost anything, 'food' was about as specific as he was likely going to ever get.

"Everything I've had from there has been good, so I don't think you can make a bad choice," Sanji chuckled, watching as Law got his own jacket on, and Sanji just hoped he'd have enough time to figure out what was going on with Ace before they got back.

000

Law and Kaku had barely closed the door behind them when Ace staggered his way into the bedroom, flopping on the bed and groaning rather pitifully.

"You know you don't have to act around them, right?" Sanji sat down beside him, Ace immediately rolling over and half-crawling into the blond's lap. "They're not going to judge you."

"I know. Logically," Ace conceded. "But I guess I'm worried that if I let on how fucked up I am nobody will like me," he looked up at Sanji, dark eyes full of worry, and Sanji stroked his hair.

"I like you just fine," he promised, although he could understand Ace's fears.

It wasn't as if Ace was completely faking; not really. He was brash and flirty and confident and easy-going, but not to the extent that he put on around strangers, and Sanji knew it was exhausting for him to keep up that intense of a personality for long periods of time.

He didn't know the whole story with Ace, just what he'd heard from Luffy about his mother dying during childbirth and his father being some sort of notorious criminal, but Ace always seemed to think people would judge him if they found out. He craved affection but was afraid of getting too close to anybody, and Sanji knew that he had a guilt complex even bigger than Sanji's own (which, admittedly, was pretty fucking big).

"I know you do," Ace gave him a soft smile. "But I'm still afraid."

"I'm pretty sure you don't have to be with those guys," Sanji shrugged, although he knew his words alone wouldn't be enough to change Ace's mind. "You're fucking amazing, Ace. Whether you believe it or not."

"I don't," Ace nuzzled his nose against Sanji's stomach, pushing up his shirt a bit so he could kiss the skin just above the waistband of his pants. "But I'm glad you think so."

"Of course I do," Sanji let his hand rest on Ace's back, trying to offer whatever comfort he could. "And they do, too. Showing a little bit of vulnerability isn't going to change that, baby."

Ace breathed out slowly, his body tensing even under the soothing touches Sanji was trying to give him, and eventually he sat up and dropped his head into his hands.

"Ace?"

"I'm a mess. Such a fucking mess," Ace mumbled, his shoulders shaking a little. "Fuck."

"Hey," Sanji wasn't sure how to react, because Ace could usually pull himself out of whatever funk he'd managed to slide into but apparently that wasn't happening this time.

"Sorry," Ace took another deep breath and looked up. "I don't…know what's happening to me."

"C'mere," Sanji pulled back the blankets, crawling under the covers and opening his arms. Ace scrambled over immediately, clinging to him, and Sanji sighed in relief that Ace was letting himself be comforted. "I love you."

"I know," Ace said, his voice a little stronger. "I love you, too."

"And no matter what happens with Marco or Law or anybody, we'll always have each other," he promised, because that was one thing he was sure of. No, he and Ace weren't _in_ love, but that didn't mean Ace wasn't one of the most important people in the entire world to him, and he knew that would never change.

"I know," Ace reached for his hand and clasped it tightly, and although he didn't say anything after that, Sanji could feel him start to relax.

Maybe they were all fucked up, he thought sadly, but maybe that's why they'd all been drawn to each other in the first place.

"Will you be okay when Kaku and Law get back with lunch?" he asked, dropping a kiss into Ace's hair. "I can tell them you're not feeling well or something."

"I'll be fine," Ace looked up at him. "And maybe you're….right in that I can stop acting around them. At least a little bit," he half-closed his eyes, head resting on Sanji's shoulder.

"You're fucking beautiful, Ace," Sanji said quietly. "Inside and out."

Ace kind of shrugged, not really agreeing, but Sanji knew he never would: yeah, he'd joke about being hot, but that was the only compliment Sanji had ever heard him give about himself.

He didn't deny it, though, and for now, that was the best Sanji could ask for.

 **Notes:**

 **1.** I'm so sorry this has taken so long to update! Between midterms/group projects/work I've had very little time to write, and the time I did have I was suffering from a bit of writer's block so I apologize if the quality of this chapter isn't up to my usual standard. I've got some time off coming up but since I have more assignments and finals I can't guarantee when the next chapter will be up either :/

 **2.** I didn't get a whole lot of feedback on the last chapter so if you're still reading and enjoying this, please feel free to leave a review or comment! And thank you to those that do :)


	14. Chapter 14

**Title:** Control  
 **Author:** kikokus (AoiTsukikage)  
 **Rating:** NC-17  
 **Characters/Pairing:** Ace/Law/Sanji in all combinations, side Marco/Ace, Sanji/others  
 **Chapter:** 14/?  
 **Word Count:** 3471  
 **Summary:** In which Sanji and Ace are models for a BDSM site and Law's the new guy doing his first shoot (Dom!Ace, sub!Sanji-and-Law)

 **Chapter Fourteen**

"This is awkward, isn't it?"

Sanji wasn't quite sure how they'd ended up here, other than that after eating lunch and watching the rest of the shoot, Law had turned to him and said in a rather serious voice, "if my character was actually me, I would come back," and Sanji had replied, his own voice feeling thick, "if your character was actually you, you would never have left."

And yes, admittedly, the tension between them had been palpable, so much so that Kaku had nearly vaulted over the back of the couch and Ace had barely paused to throw a jacket over his naked torso before they were both out the door.

So naturally that _should_ have led to them fucking each other's brains out, but instead they were still sitting on the couch, Law looking anywhere but at Sanji and Sanji at more than a little of a loss as to what was happening.

Judging by what had happened in the bathroom that morning if nothing else, Law was certainly _attracted_ to him, but at the moment there was nothing about his body language that spoke to him being aroused in any way.

The flush on his cheeks was purely from embarrassment and his crossed legs were an attempt to close himself off, not a way to hide the fact that he was hard.

It wasn't something Sanji had experienced before, and quite frankly he was a little concerned…maybe a _little_ offended, since every other impression he'd gotten was that Law _had_ liked him in that way, but more concerned than anything else.

He was starting to put the pieces together, between this, Law's awkwardness at the shoot, his obvious reluctance to participate in any sort of sexual teasing, and his revelation the night before that he really didn't care about sex that much, but he didn't want to assume before he heard it from Law himself.

"I'm sorry," Law murmured. "I'll…"

"If you say 'go' you'd better plan on never fucking talking to me again," Sanji hadn't intended that to come out so _angry,_ but at least Law looked surprised instead of the neutral expression he'd adopted for the past who-knew-how-many minutes. "Law. _Talk_ to me," he urged, taking a chance and reaching for Law's hand, and to his relief Law didn't pull away from him.

"I can't," Law shook his head. "It's just one more thing about me that will scare you off."

Of course. Law already seemed to think they would all judge him for his past, so it was natural he'd be reluctant about…whatever this was, as well.

"Can I…take a guess?" Sanji asked softly, hoping that maybe if he bridged the gap Law would be more willing to open up.

"I don't think this is something that…"

"You're asexual. Or on the spectrum," Sanji waved his hand vaguely, feeling validated instantly when Law blinked rapidly at him, mouth falling open a bit.

"How…"

"I just added everything up," he smiled. "It seems obvious now, if I'm being honest."

"Oh," Law sighed, slumping back against the couch and, after a minute, leaning against Sanji so he was curled up to his side. "Fuck. I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what? Something you can't change?" Sanji snorted. "Don't be sorry, babe…shit," he groaned, knowing that while he might have gotten away with that at the shoot, it was probably too familiar now.

"It's fine," Law chuckled. "You can call me that if you want," he seemed to relax entirely now, his eyes half-closed, and Sanji reached his arm around Law's shoulders to pull him even closer. "And I think 'on the spectrum' is more accurate, because I do feel sexual attraction, but it's…very rare, and not consistent."

"So like…grey-ace?" Sanji asked, getting a half-shrug.

"Probably. But I know you're…attracted to me, and I feel like it's not fair…"

"Not fair?" Sanji blinked. "Of course it's fair. If…fuck, look, if you don't want to do anything with me, it's not any of my fucking business. But I'm not going to lie, either, because I think you're gorgeous," he smiled down at the other man.

Law shivered a little, scrambling closer almost desperately, and Sanji shifted so that he was lying on the couch and let Law climb on top of him.

"I've never told anybody," Law admitted. "I thought people would judge me, or think I was strange or broken or…fuck, I don't know," he mumbled. "But thank you."

"Don't thank me," Sanji snorted. "I'm being a fucking decent human being, that's not something I should be praised for."

"Still," Law mumbled. "I'm very…do you think the others…can I tell them? When Ace says things like…that what I really wanted was for you to give me a blowjob or something, that makes me a little uncomfortable," he admitted and Sanji sighed.

"Honestly, Ace is gonna feel guilty that he did that to you," he said firmly. "His brother's asexual. That's how I know so much about it," he glanced up at the ceiling. "I…fuck, I judged him too, when I found out, because it wasn't something I had any experience with, y'know? But I've known Luffy since we were kids and I love him like he's my own little brother, so I did some research."

"You don't know how much of a relief it is to hear you say that," Law said quietly. "I mean, obviously my libido is…fairly high…but if I'm being honest the day we did the shoot I was reacting more to the environment and the pleasure I was feeling than the physical acts themselves," he looked away again. "Not that…I wouldn't have ever let you do what you did if I didn't feel any sort of connection with you, but it wasn't inherently sexual in nature. And this morning in the bathroom…I'm almost glad that Ace interrupted us because going farther wasn't something I had even considered in that situation."

"I get it," Sanji promised, because he did. "So when you watched all of my shoots…"

"It wasn't to jerk off," Law chuckled wryly. "It was because I wanted to see what other sorts of things they did at the site and it felt more comfortable watching you than watching a stranger."

"Well, I'm not gonna say my pride isn't a little insulted," he grinned and Law eventually smiled back tentatively. "But if one day you decide you want to do something, of course I'll be interested, and if it never happens, I'm…happy to do whatever you'll let me," he said carefully. "So the cuddling and kissing…"

"I'm okay with that. Surprisingly," Law mumbled. "I was never big on physical contact growing up, but maybe because I trust you, I actually rather enjoy it."

"Cool," Sanji was glad for that, anyway, and he hugged Law a little tighter. "Thank you for telling me."

"Well, you guessed more than I told you," he smiled a little wider now. "But I'm glad I did."

"For what it's worth, I meant it when I said that I'd like to re-do your first time," Sanji added. "But only when or if you want to."

"And I meant it when I said I would accept," Law promised. "One day."

"Good," Sanji reached for Law's hand and squeezed it. "So is this why you'd never call us anything more than 'attractive?'"

"Perhaps inadvertently," he admitted. "The word 'hot' has such a…sexual connotation to it, I suppose, but I can appreciate aesthetics and you're very appealing to look at," he said honestly.

"See, you can flatter me when you want to," Sanji smirked. "But none of this changes how I see you, y'know? I promise."

"I believe you," Law assured him with a tiny nod. "And I still want to thank you, even if you don't think it's necessary. I feel…lighter, now that I've told you."

"Good," Sanji stroked his hands down Law's back, trying to coax him into relaxing even more. "I like you a lot, and I'm not going to pretend that to begin with it _wasn't_ because of your looks, but the more I've gotten to know you…it's more than that."

"I like you a lot, too," Law chuckled. "And on my end I think that was part of the reason I ran away, because I was…afraid you'd want something from me that I can't give you."

"Yeah," Sanji supposed that made sense. He ran his fingers up into Law's hair, scrubbing at his scalp a little as the older man let out a contented sound that was almost a purr.

He didn't say anything else, though Sanji was betting what he _had_ said had probably taken enough of an emotional toll on him, so after a few minutes of comfortable silence Sanji reached for the remote and turned the television on to a cooking show.

"Do you mind? If you want to sleep I can turn it off," he looked down at Law, who blinked back at him and then turned to the screen himself. "I can get pretty heated when it comes to watching other people cook," he admitted sheepishly.

"It's fine," Law shrugged. "I'm interested to hear your opinions. It'll help me know you better," he said it casually but Sanji knew the underlying message was that Law _wanted_ to know him better, and he was flattered by it

"Okay. I _did_ warn you," Sanji looked back at the screen, getting more comfortable against the sofa and grinning when Law immediately shifted to lie on top of him again.

Yeah, maybe whatever… _thing…_ he had with Law wouldn't be exactly what he fantasized, but having Law at _all_ was better than any alternative, as far as he was concerned.

They'd almost made it through an entire episode, Sanji trying to tone down his normal yelling at the screen so he wouldn't scare Law off (Law just looked amused, though, so obviously he wasn't too bothered by how passionate Sanji could get about food), when there was a knock on the door and Ace's voice yelling 'hey, you two done yet?!' could be heard.

Sanji felt Law stiffen and looked down, holding him a little tighter and trying to reassure him through touch. "You okay?"

"Yes. Just…I know I shouldn't be worried, but I still am," he admitted, sighing heavily.

"It'll be fine. Trust me," Sanji smiled, waiting for Law's tiny nod before he called for Ace and Kaku to come back in.

000

"Shit," Ace stood up, pacing and running his hands through his hair.

He looked distressed, which Sanji had anticipated, though there was really no reason for him to be since he couldn't have known before.

Kaku was sitting on top of the couch, arms crossed and a rather thoughtful look on his face, but neither of them had said anything much since Law had finished telling them about his sexuality.

" _Shit,"_ Ace said again, looking back at Law and biting his lip. "I'm so fucking sorry, man, I…"

"It's fine," Law waved a hand. "I'm hardly traumatized by you making sexual jokes."

"Still, you probably thought I was a total ass and you'd have a right to," he finally sank down into an armchair and dropped his head into his hands.

"Ace," Law said firmly, at least getting the other man to look up. "I'm not angry. I'd appreciate it if you refrained from making such jokes in the future, of course, but I know you will."

"Of course I will," he nodded. "I never want to make anybody uncomfortable."

"Then that's all I need," Law promised, standing up and walking over to the chair. Ace still looked apprehensive; Sanji could see how tense he was and he nearly jumped when Law laid a hand on his shoulder, but after it became obvious that was all Law was going to do he relaxed a little.

"Okay. Sanji probably told you about my brother, right?" Ace looked up, hesitating before he placed his hand over Law's.

"He did. It was much easier to consider telling you after I heard that," he admitted and Ace finally gave him a tiny smile.

"Well, I promise I'll never do anything to make you uncomfortable on purpose," Ace said with a firm nod.

"You act as if this is going to change a lot," Law seemed like he was thinking hard about something before he sat down in Ace's lap, tangling his fingers in the other man's hair and pulling him into a kiss.

Sanji chuckled, because that was a move that Ace himself would have done and Law obviously knew him well enough by now to be able to turn it around on him.

"You've been quiet," he looked up at Kaku, who blinked down at him.

"I don't necessarily have anything to say," Kaku shrugged. "It's not my place to comment on somebody's sexuality."

Sanji nodded, giving Kaku an appraising look before reaching to grab his wrist and pulling him off of the sofa so that he mostly ended up on top of Sanji.

"What was that for?" Kaku pushed himself up, glaring at Sanji without any real heat, and Sanji shrugged.

"You looked like you were thinking too hard about something. I think…I mean, I dunno how you feel, but I think the rest of us want you to be part of this…whatever the fuck it is we've got going on."

"You wouldn't say that if you knew me," Kaku mumbled quietly, his tone dark. "Suffice to say that it's safer for me to keep my distance and for you to not view this as something it isn't."

"Woah, hey," Sanji let go of him, narrowing his eyes. "Look, if you don't want to, that's cool. I just thought…"

"Don't," Kaku stood up, adjusting his clothing and clearing his throat. "You're all too close to me as it is."

"So?" Ace glanced at them from around Law, and from the grin on his face he was obviously reassured about everything. "What's wrong with that?"

"You know my profession," Kaku shrugged. "I'm supposed to keep my distance, so perhaps it's best if I start doing that."

"Yeah, we know, but we don't care," Ace wrapped his arms around Law's waist, not looking at all apprehensive now about touching him.

"You should," Kaku snapped, turning away and sighing a moment later. "I've overstayed my welcome as it is."

"Then you can leave," Ace didn't seem at all fazed by this and Sanji glanced at him in surprise, because normally he'd be the most sensitive when it came to somebody acting the way Kaku was. "Wanna move to the couch?" he directed this to Law, who glanced at all of them before nodding slowly and getting off of Ace's lap.

Sanji yelped when Ace pounced on him, the older man yanking Law along with him so they ended up in a tangle of limbs that Sanji gave up on trying to figure out after a few futile seconds of struggling.

"Was he yelling at the cooks again?" Ace directed this to Law, who looked at the TV and nodded.

"He does that a lot?"

"Every fucking time we watch a cooking show. It's why I don't let him anymore," Ace reached for the remote but Sanji managed to grab it first, holding it high enough that Ace couldn't get to it without physically crawling over him.

Which he would probably do, if both of them weren't half-on top of him, so Sanji figured that Ace's plan had kind of backfired.

He gave up trying to reach the remote after a few minutes of struggling and instead turned back to Kaku, raising an eyebrow. "So…you gonna join us?"

Kaku looked rather lost, eyes darting toward the door and then back to the couch before he sighed heavily and moved close enough for Ace to grab him and yank him down into the pile as well. "You're all exceptionally stubborn."

"Yeah, you should know that already," Ace pointed out. "Look, man, just…tell me one thing. Have you ever lied to us? I mean, you've hidden the truth, and I get why, but is anything about _you_ a lie?"

"I…" Kaku paused, looking between the three of them before sinking back onto Sanji's chest. "No. No, I'm…this is me," he shrugged. "I'm not good enough to keep a front up for hours at a time."

"I figured so," Ace crawled half on top of him. "So as far as I'm concerned, that's all I care about. And if you want to stay, I think we're all cool with that."

"It's not a good idea," Kaku shook his head. "What I want is irrelevant."

"So you _do_ want to stay," Ace was smirking and Kaku rolled his eyes, slumping back against Sanji's shoulder. "I knew it."

"It doesn't matter," Kaku mumbled again. "Fuck, I'm breaking so many rules right now."

"Theoretically speaking, Lucci and Kalifa know you're here, correct?" Law broke in, causing Kaku to regard him rather carefully before nodding. "And they knew you were coming over here for a friendly visit, which already should be infringing upon whatever rules your organization may have?"

"Well, yes, technically, but…"

"So if they don't care, and you don't care, who's gonna care?" Ace pressed, pushing himself up so that he was level with Kaku.

"Well, perhaps nobody, but that still doesn't negate the fact that I'm not supposed to be doing this," he wasn't making much of an effort to try to get away any longer so Sanji wrapped his arms around him in a loose embrace.

"Look, whatever's going on, all of us are in it together. I thought we'd finally convinced Law of that last night, so don't make us have to convince you, too," Ace continued, leaning closer until Kaku nodded and then kissing him rather firmly.

Kaku made a tiny resigned sound in the back of his throat before his arms wrapped around Ace and he returned the kiss.

"Maybe I can stay for a little longer," he conceded when they broke apart, and Ace gave him a brilliant grin at that. "But I wasn't lying when I said all of you should be cautious about getting too close to me."

"I'm pretty sure it's too late for that," Sanji chuckled. "So just relax. Your role right now is to be a normal employee, right?"

"Yes," Kaku agreed, narrowing his eyes as he craned his head back to look up at Sanji. "And?"

"So wouldn't it make more sense if you _were_ close to us? I mean, if you're worried about people figuring out who you are, trying to distance yourself is going to seem more suspicious," he shrugged, because now that he thought about it, Kaku had always been…distant. Friendly, yes, and easy to talk to, but even though he'd worked at the studio for years Sanji couldn't really say he was _close_ to anybody.

"So you don't care that there are things you don't know about me?" he didn't really answer Sanji's question, but that in and of itself was a pretty definitive answer.

"Nope," he leaned down to kiss the tip of Kaku's nose, which earned him a blush and a half-hearted glower.

"So you're staying?" Ace clarified, and at Kaku's tiny nod he shuffled off of the other man a little and curled against the back of the sofa. "Hey, c'mere," he directed this at Law, who shifted closer, lying down so his head was resting on Kaku's shoulder.

"Ah, that reminds me, Law and I had a conversation while we were grabbing lunch about what to do about Doflamingo and he's come up with a pretty solid idea," Kaku mentioned, his fingers idly playing with Law's hair.

"Mm, Kaku's going to talk to the rest of CP9 later and if everything's in order we'll go to one of the admins tomorrow to see if its feasible," Law added. "If it is, I'm going to require help from the two of you, but I want to make sure this even has a chance at working before we go into that," he admitted, and Sanji could see the logic in that.

There was no sense in coming up with an elaborate plan if they had to change it, so he was willing to wait a couple of days in order to find out the details.

At least, at this point, he was sure that Law and Kaku weren't trying to exclude them any longer, so that was reassuring.

"Anything you guys need, just tell us," Ace promised, meeting Sanji's eyes, and this time when they all settled in to watch TV Sanji could feel that _all_ of them were more relaxed.

Which was good, because if things went to shit, at least they had each other - and that was something Sanji really hoped wasn't going to change.

 **Notes**

 **1.** I don't have a whole lot to say this time around, other than that the plot is going to start moving forward again (and I promise there's more smut on the way, too!) but I thought it was important to explore their individual characters a little more first.

 **2.** I know some people have asked for this, so if you haven't seen it, I've started a Marco/Ace side-fic called 'Restraint' that you can find on my page. It doesn't really fit into a specific spot in this 'verse but it's still compliant with the events of this fic.

 **3.** As always, thank you so much for the lovely comments and support, and I hope people continue to enjoy :)


	15. Chapter 15

**Title:** Control  
 **Author:** kikokus (AoiTsukikage)  
 **Rating:** NC-17  
 **Characters/Pairing:** Ace/Law/Sanji in all combinations, side Marco/Ace, Sanji/others  
 **Chapter:** 15/?  
 **Word Count:** 3609  
 **Summary:** In which Sanji and Ace are models for a BDSM site and Law's the new guy doing his first shoot (Dom!Ace, sub!Sanji-and-Law)

 **Notes:** This chapter contains spoilers for very recent manga chapters, so a warning for that if you're not caught up.

 **Chapter Fifteen**

"Can I talk to you?"

"Huh?" Sanji looked around, a cup of coffee held in his hand as he picked it up from the counter. The question was unmistakeably aimed at him, even though he had never laid eyes on the speaker before.

She looked to be in her late twenties, and she tucked a stray strand of wavy black hair behind her ear he as moved a little closer.

"Me?"

"Yes. Sanji, right?" she held out a hand, and when he took it her full lips broke into a gentle smile. "My name's Viola."

"Viola…" he blinked, trying to remember where he'd heard the name before. It came to him after a few seconds, Law's words from the meeting they'd had about who the best people to possibly turn against Doflmaingo would be, and he smiled in return. "It's a pleasure to meet you, my dear."

He brought her hand to his lips, kissing the back as she let out a low chuckle, and she slipped it from his grasp when the barista called out her order.

"Shall we take a walk?" she suggested after snapping a lid onto the cup, and she let Sanji take her arm and lead her out of the café.

It was a chilly morning, though hardly cold by any means, and Sanji directed them to the wide path beside the river. It would be easy to blend in with all of the other people rushing to work or school or wherever their travels led them.

"I presume this means Kalifa's spoken to you?" he asked, getting a nod in return.

"She has, and of course I'm willing to betray Doflamingo. I don't know how much you've been told, but suffice to say working for him was never my choice," she looked sad, her full lips pulled down in a frown. "Law and I haven't interacted much so I was told it would look odd to suddenly be close to him now, which is why I've come to you instead."

"Well, I'm sure Kalifa knows I can't resist a beautiful lady," Sanji bowed his head, hoping he could at least get a smile from that and feeling rather proud when it had the intended effect. "So what's on your mind, my dear?"

"I've come to warn you about CP9," she said, rather bluntly, and Sanji stopped walking for a second because he wasn't expecting that.

For her to ask about the plan to expose Doflamingo, yes – not that he would have been much help there, since so far only Kaku and Law seemed to know about it – but certainly not for her to warn him about the people already _on_ their side.

"You what?" he asked, blinking rapidly at her.

"I…my father's company had a lot of connections, and we've long known about the so-called agents of justice. Yes, they work for the city and their services are invaluable, but more than once Doflamingo has tried to buy them out. He's been unsuccessful, but from what I hear their boss is easily intimidated and the thought that they're so involved in this plan…it makes me wary," she admitted, starting to walk again so that Sanji had to clasp her arm a little tighter in order to keep up with her.

"Why tell me, then?" he asked, looking over at her as they walked. "I could be a spy for them."

"You're not," she sounded completely confident and Sanji was just confused now, since he'd never met this woman before so there was no way she could know… "Doflamingo knows everybody that runs in the underground circles and while my own knowledge is limited to those I've seen passing through his home, it's hard to forget eyebrows as distinctive as yours," she kept walking even as her arm slipped from Sanji's gasp and he stood there frozen, a chill on the back of his neck feeling as if somebody had just poured ice water down his jacket.

Fuck, he should have considered this when he'd first heard about Doflamingo and what kind of operations he was running, but he'd pushed the thought so far to the back of his mind that some days it seemed like he'd been successful in forgetting those particular memories altogether.

"Sanji?" Viola was looking at him with concern. "I apologize for bringing that up without any warning, but I assume you're running from your past so the last thing you'd be looking to do was get involved with people who would bring it back to you."

And okay, that was a fair point, although the thought of CP9 having anything to do with his birth family hadn't even crossed his mind until that second.

Still, it explained Viola's trust in him, and somehow he knew that he could trust _her_ not to say anything about what she'd figured out so there was no point in worrying about it.

"It's...it's okay, my dear," he promised, gently taking her elbow again. "But you're correct in assuming that I'd like to leave that part of my life far behind me."

"Then I won't mention it again," she squeezed his hand. "But your reaction tells me that both of us are on the same side when it comes down to it, and that's why I decided you were the best person to approach."

"I appreciate it," he said truthfully, because if nothing else it let him know that he hadn't quite escaped his past yet, and he'd have to be more careful from here on out. Not that he felt any real fear – if they wanted to find him, they would have done it by now – but he'd still keep his guard up until all of this was over and done with.

"There's one more thing," she sighed, and Sanji wondered what _else_ she could tell him to fuck up his world-view. "Again, this is hear-say, but one of the reasons Doflamingo's so interested in CP9 is that part of their training supposedly involves…learning to torture people for information."

"Shit," Sanji cursed softly, willing his feet to keep moving this time even though he really wanted to stop again in order to digest that.

"Doflamingo himself is…rather adept at torture, but unfortunately his methods often result in death and the thought of him having people on his side that are trained to keep their victims alive until they find out what they need to know is terrifying," she murmured, and Sanji _really_ couldn't dispute that.

"So you're saying…I mean, Kaku's a fucking brilliant dom, but do you think…"

"That he and Kalifa are utilizing their training? I'm quite sure of it," she nodded firmly. "Sanji," she was the one who stopped then, gripping his hand. "I'm not telling you this to scare you or tell you that you shouldn't trust them. But the stakes are high for all of us…for you and I and Law…and more than anything I _need_ this to work because if it doesn't my family…my niece…they're the ones who are going to suffer. I don't care about myself, but for their sake," she said, her eyes a little wet but her expression fiercely determined, and Sanji knew he'd be the same way if it came to Zeff or any of his friends being threatened.

"I understand," he promised, leaning to kiss her cheek. "Thank you for telling me," he added, offering his arm once more, and he decided to turn the conversation to lighter topics by enquiring about her niece, something that made Viola give him a relieved smile.

He _was_ appreciative of her telling him, but there was also a part of him that thought his life would have been so much simpler if she just…hadn't, because most of it was things he could have happily lived forever without knowing about.

It was too late for that now, though, so one way or another he'd just have to deal with it.

000

"Maybe you should talk to him."

"I will," Sanji sighed and flopped back onto his bed, glancing at Law from across the room. "I just wanted to check with you and see if her story was credible. I don't want to accuse a guy for no reason."

"But you're obviously still doubting him, if you're thinking on her words at all," Law pointed out, and Sanji couldn't really dispute that.

"He's lied to me before," he said quietly, holding out his hand before realizing that maybe he was being too bold and pulling it back. He and Ace would have been all over each other by this point already, but even though Law's admission about his sexuality shouldn't have changed anything it…kind of did.

"Do you want me to…" Law sighed before moving closer, sitting down carefully on the bed beside Sanji.

"You don't have to," Sanji mumbled, shrugging his shoulders. "It's fine."

"You should have realized by now that I don't particularly have anything _against_ cuddling, even if my experience with it is minimal," Law slid his arm around Sanji's shoulders and tugged him closer. "I…like it. When it's you."

"Yeah?" Sanji smiled a little at that, shifting so that he was lying more fully against Law. "Good."

"And to answer your question…I don't think anything she said is untrue, though from what I know CP9 have always worked for the government. If they can be bought out, nobody's done it yet, but Doflamingo's certainly wary of them so it wouldn't surprise me if he had tried to get them to come to his side in the past," he admitted, his hands moving lazily down Sanji's back.

It was nice, even if Law still seemed a little stiff, but he was making an effort and Sanji appreciated it. "That's good to know," he mumbled, nuzzling Law's neck. "Will you come with me to talk to him?"

"If you want me there," Law nodded. "I don't think you have anything to fear from him, though."

"I'm not afraid," Sanji shrugged, because he wasn't. Not really. "But I'd still like some backup."

"Then I'll be there," Law cleared his throat, causing Sanji to look up at him. "Um…" he leaned closer, looking far too unsure, so Sanji closed the distance between them and kissed him gently.

"Mm," he pulled away after a few seconds, letting his forehead rest against Law's. "You never have to ask, idiot," he murmured, which thankfully prompted Law to kiss him again. Sanji had never really considered before that just touching and kissing without the intention of bringing anything sexual into it could be as enjoyable as it was, but he was quickly being proved wrong.

This was just…nice, he supposed, and he ran his hands down Law's back as the other man moved to straddle him properly. Sanji let out a tiny groan, his fingers sliding under the hem of Law's shirt unconsciously, and Law pulled back quickly.

"Sanji, I don't…"

"Shit," Sanji moved his hand. "Sorry. I wasn't trying to…" he sighed, lying back on the bed. "I'd never do that, y'know?"

"I know," Law takes a shaky breath, sitting back and reaching to pull his shirt off. Sanji looked at him in surprise, his mouth going dry as he let his eyes linger on the other man's bare skin.

"Are you sure?" he asked softly, his hands already reaching to rest against Law's chest as his fingers traced the lines of the heart tattooed there. "You don't have to."

"I'm not going to lie and say that you…touching me doesn't feel good," Law replied, half-closing his eyes. "You like them, right?"

"Your tattoos?" Sanji asked, although he figured the answer was probably obvious. "Yeah."

"Then I don't mind," Law assured him. "As long as you return the favor."

"Because I'm very attractive?" Sanji raised an eyebrow, smirking, and Law swatted at his hair. He sat up enough to get his shirt off before leaning back, tugging Law gently along with him. Law kissed him again, laying his body over Sanji's and tangling their legs together, and Sanji spread his hands over Law's back.

Fuck, he'd never done anything like this before, but there was something so intimate about it regardless. It was the same feeling he'd gotten the day of the shoot with Law, that there was some _connection_ between them he couldn't find words for, but maybe he didn't need to.

"Mm," he pulled back, his hands still lazily tracing over Law's skin. "Are you really okay with this?"

"Yes," Law promised. "It feels nice. I don't have any real objections being close to you, but I suppose I just…needed to know I could trust you to not take things farther than I'm comfortable with."

"I won't," Sanji shook his head. "Although I can't promise I won't get hard…"

"Well, since I could just as easily be afflicted by the same predicament, I can hardly judge you for that," Law gave him a wry smile.

"Good," Sanji kissed him again, because he really wanted to, his hands still trailing over Law's bare chest. He was so caught up in everything that was Law that he didn't even register somebody else coming into the apartment until he heard the sound of a throat being cleared.

Law pulled back immediately, his eyes narrowed as he glared at the doorway. Ace didn't seem cowed by the stern look and merely grinned, leaning against the frame of the door and looking far too smug.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt," he mentioned casually, although the shit-eating grin on his face said otherwise. "But you should know that if there's any sort of half-naked cuddling involved it's rude not to invite me."

Sanji looked pointedly at Law, letting him make the decision because his comfort was the most important thing, and Law eventually turned to Ace and nodded.

"Cool," Ace had his shirt off in about half a second and was on the bed with them, draping himself over Law's back. "But if you want me to leave, just kick me out. I'm not gonna be offended," he promised, nuzzling his nose into Law's hair.

"I don't mind," Law said, and Sanji could tell that he wasn't lying. In fact, Law was about the most relaxed he'd ever seen him, his body pliant as he let his head rest on Sanji's shoulder.

"D'you want to come with us to talk to Kaku tomorrow?" Sanji reached up to brush Ace's hair back.

"About the Viola thing?" Ace narrowed his eyes slightly. Sanji had told him first, of course, since Ace was still the person he knew the best. "Yeah, why not. I'd like to hear what he's got to say."

"Good," Sanji kept stroking his fingers through Ace's hair, his free hand skimming down Law's side, and he thought absently how comfortable and safe he felt.

It wasn't a new thing with Ace, of course, but for once he didn't have any fears that Law would disappear or close off, and _that_ was certainly unexpected.

Not unwelcome, though. Far from it, and he turned his nose into Law's hair and kissed the top of his head. Law nuzzled his neck in return, something sleepy and sated about his movements that made Sanji's chest ache.

Because Law deserved to feel like this all the time. Hell, they _all_ did, and he just hoped that when everything with Doflamingo was over and done with, this was one thing that wouldn't change.

000

"Is this an interrogation?"

"We just want to talk," Sanji promised, although the pointed look and raised eyebrow Kaku gave him implied that he didn't believe that in the slightest.

"So all three of you come barging into my edit suite unannounced just to talk?" he shut off the monitor and spun his chair around, something defensive in his posture as his eyes flicked to the door and then back to the three of them.

He was calculating, Sanji realized; trying to figure out the best way to get out of the room if the situation went badly, and Sanji immediately felt guilty for causing such an extreme reaction.

"Seriously," he took a hesitant step forward, steeling himself and plopping down into Kaku's lap.

The older man let out a heavy sigh but did nothing to dislodge him, his arms wrapping around Sanji's waist. "Okay. Then talk."

'I spoke with Viola the other day," Sanji started, feeling Kaku shift underneath him as his eyes darted toward the door again. "She told me a few…interesting things. One of which was that CP9's loyalty could be sold to the highest bidder," he tried to keep his tone neutral but it still sounded like an accusation to his own ears.

"If it can, I have no say in it," Kaku shrugged. "And to be honest, while our…boss might not be the most upstanding sort and is far too obsessed with fame and power, going against the government and the police would be tantamount to suicide so it would never happen," he said firmly, and Sanji could only believe him. "But I have a feeling you knew that…or at least suspected it…so what's your real concern?" he narrowed his eyes, his grip on Sanji's waist tightening almost as if in warning.

"The…other thing Viola told me," he started slowly, suddenly wishing he _hadn't_ put himself in such close proximity to Kaku. "She said that…the reason you and Kalifa are so good at being doms is because you…you've been trained to torture people," his voice had dropped to nearly a whisper by the last sentence and he heard Kaku sigh, although that in itself didn't really give him any indication as to whether the story was true.

"I'm not going to deny it," he finally stated and Sanji felt himself flinch involuntarily. "You should go now."

"What? Why?" Sanji blinked, a little surprised that Kaku just wanted to brush them off instead of trying to offer up any sort of explanation.

"Because I could tell from the way you spoke and the way your body reacted that you've already made up your mind about me, so there's really no point in pretending otherwise. I tried to warn you not to get close to me but you persisted, so it's your own fault at this point," he let go of Sanji entirely. "Just…just go. I should be working."

Sanji sighed, tilting Kaku's chin up and kissing him rather insistently, and he felt the other man grip his waist again after a few seconds. "You know I could kill you right now," Kaku murmured, looking at him seriously. "I could kill you so easily."

"I know," Sanji chuckled. "But you won't. I know how careful you were with me during the shoot," he pointed out.

"For the record, I've never _actually_ tortured anybody," Kaku added, his posture relaxing a little as he slumped back against the chair.

"It wouldn't matter," Law spoke up and Kaku glanced at him. "You've already more than proven what sort of person you really are, as far as I'm concerned."

"Yeah," Ace agreed, one arm casually slung around Law's shoulders. "Seriously, you need to stop assuming that every little thing we hear about you is going to make us run off."

"I wouldn't blame you if you did," Kaku slid his hands up Sanji's shirt, looking at him seriously. "But I'm…fuck."

"What?" Sanji asked softly, curling up a little so he was pressed closer.

"I'm thankful that you're not running," he finally admitted. "You've all likely guessed that, outside of CP9, there's not really a lot of opportunities for me to make friends. So this does mean a lot to me even if I'm rather horrible at showing it."

"It's cool, man," Ace promised with a grin. "Really. Just stop trying to push us away, okay? I think we've made it pretty clear we're not going anywhere."

"You have," Kaku conceded, letting his hands move back down to Sanji's waist. "But I wasn't lying when I said I was working. And I have some…things to tell you and Ace in regards to our eventual plan, but I'd rather do it somewhere private," he glanced around, and while Sanji was pretty sure the studio was safe, he supposed Doflamingo's minions _were_ working there.

"Come over tonight?" he suggested, getting a nod after a few seconds. "Okay. I have to head over to the restaurant to work the dinner shift but if I'm not home by the time you get there, Ace'll let you in," he instructed, because Ace was at his place more often than his own.

Ace winked at them before turning and trying with no subtlety whatsoever to get Law to come as well, and Sanji took the opportunity to lean in close to Kaku.

"I have something else to talk you about. Alone," he added, because he _had_ to know if Kaku knew about his family.

He was pretty sure the answer was 'yes', given CP9's knowledge of the city's underworld, but he still wanted to know for certain.

"Okay," Kaku gave him a quick hug before letting go and Sanji stood up, saying that he had to get to work and that he'd see them all later (with a pointed look at Law, of course, even though he was pretty convinced by now that Law wouldn't be reluctant to come over any longer).

He owed them all the truth, he knew, especially since he was already feeling like a hypocrite for not saying anything sooner, but that would have to wait.

Right now, he had to focus on work, and he just hoped that cooking for a few hours would help to clear his head.

 **Notes:**

 **1.** I am so sorry for the wait on this! Between finals and picking up a bunch of extra hours at work my writing time has been severely cut into so it took a while for me to get this chapter to where it needed to be.

 **2.** Obviously the information we have about Sanji's family isn't that filled in yet, but there's enough that I decided to play around with it and figured that it actually worked into the fic fairly well.

 **3.** As always, thank you for the continued reviews and comments and I hope this fic is still enjoyable!


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